A Twist In The Tale
by ArionWong
Summary: UPA treatment of Vandread. AU and Self-insertions, you can read or ignore the first chapter for explaination...
1. Introduction & Prologue

**Introduction**

What is UPA?

Unlimited Parallel Adventures.

What does it mean? It all began as a Command & Conquer story, a joke that started from an ICQ chat session which was interrupted by a thunderstorm.

That real-life incident prompted me to actually write a what-if story... Specifically, what if that storm caused me and my friends to warp into the Command & Conquer universe?

Weeks later, the story got longer, the ideas wilder, the universe expanding larger. I realized that I could literally link them all up together in one big alternate universe where the avatars of me and my friends became ageless immortals and go gallivanting about wrecking havoc and doing as we please.

The result is UPA, my very own alternate universe of anime, games and other interesting material. It is one big crossover, with gratuitous amounts of self-insertions, liberal interpretations of original canon and a dosage of (hopefully) healthy imagination and humor.

And now, it is this anime/game/whatever's turn. Feel free to skip the first prologue/introduction if you wish to ignore the UPA universe, you will be able to treat the other chapters as an AU/Self-insertion fic. 

I hope you will enjoy my UPA take on this particular anime/game/whatever... and wish you won't get too confused in the process.

And if you do enjoy it, please enjoy my other UPA fics here at fanfiction.net.

---

Arion Wong

-UPA Productions

-writing incomplete fanfics since 1996-

----------------------------------------------------

****

**Prologue**

****

"I have memories of another life..."

                        --- RDAW, circa 1996

      After the departure of the SDF-1[i] and the so-called Exodus Group with the alien Chenjesu in 2014[ii], the United Earth Government fell apart.

      The UEG's seemingly cold-heartedness in refusing the Chenjesu's plea for help had caused its popularity to dip throughout the world. Prominent member countries: China, Japan, the USSR, and the East Asia Economic Co-prosperity felt snubbed by their slim defeat in the UEG voting process that caused the defection of 70,000 of the world's most brilliant minds and best soldiers.

      Even before the very short war of 2014 following the Exodus that saw a limited exchange of thermonuclear weapons over the Pacific, the UEG was already considered a phantom memory. Whatever semblance of unity it once provided for humanity vanished like a dream.

      Erupting from the turmoil, the independent arm of the UEG known as Earth-Core rose into prominence. Earth-Core was first founded by the UEG as its own security force, although its beginning came much earlier. It had its roots in 2006, when the Global Defense Initiative[iii] of the former United Nations was dissolved by the then fledgling UEG.

      From the ashes of the GDI came the Earth-First Policy. The arrival of the Visitor (later rebuilt as the SDF-1) in 2004 combined with the effects of the Tiberium meteorite of 1999 caused widespread paranoia of aliens throughout the world. The new UEG, hoping to ride the wave; issued the Earth-First Policy of strict neutrality from any and all aliens to be encountered in the future. 

Everyone knew it was just a play of words, no one expected the Chenjesu to dramatically arrive in 2014. No one in the UEG expected to see the day when they had to actually enforce the Earth-First Policy.

Earth-Core became the ruling body of the world under the political machinations of Senator McCain. With cunning media manipulations exceeding that of even Kane during the Tiberium War, McCain managed to portray Earth-Core as the savior of humanity by early 2015.

"The Earth-First Policy is not wrong," he had expounded, drawing the ire of many. But many others who had been disillusioned by the war listened as McCain placed the blame squarely on the Exodus, the "traitors of humanity". "We must now realize that humanity is on the brink of a new era. We must protect Earth from all alien powers, and we must do it by making humanity stronger than ever before!" McCain was elected the President of Earth-Core soon afterwards.

With his drive, Earth-Core created the Legion of Iron[iv], the space military and colonization arm. By 2020, humanity had colonized more than 30 worlds. With rapid genetic and biological developments, there were soon billions of humans living outside from Earth. By 2040, the number of worlds doubled.

The Great War with the Vasudan Empire[v] that began in 2046 slowed the Legion of Iron a great deal. All resources were redirected to military applications, yet the war began to reach a stalemate in 2050. 

The stalemate of routine battles and skirmishes was broken with the dramatic arrival of the SDF-1 from deep space. McCain rejected the Exodus Group's homecoming and called them traitors of humanity, conspiring with the alien power known as the Alliance of Free Stars to enslave humans.

After the Exodus Group left in bitter terms, McCain intensified the war effort. When the war ended in 2053 due to unexpected circumstances that forced the Legion and the Vasudans to work together, McCain found himself alone; the old man railing against a peace with the aliens. Humanity had left him behind.

Earth-Core was ended in 2054 and the United Planets Government[vi] appeared in its place. UPG President Vandega continued colonization efforts under the United Planets Space Force, the renamed Legion of Iron.

Between the years of 2054 and 2065, the UPG saw the colonization of another 200 worlds, as if making up for lost time. But the expansion came at a price. A disastrous colonization effort saw the massacre of Vela II and the subsequent invasion of UPG space by the Mimbari. After a year of major defeats, UPG forces saw the invaders drive a stake-like wedge directly towards Earth. Then suddenly, the Mimbari offered truce in the Battle of Riga. Peace resumed, however tenuous it became.

The subsequent Babylon Project came in 2069[vii] and eventually led to the United Federation of Planets[viii] in 2085. Humanity continued to spread throughout known space, colonizing new worlds as they go. Some still maintain close ties with Earth, others had their own agendas. All colonies were members of the UPG which was in turn a member of the Federation. With astonishing rapidity, humanity became one of the most widespread and diverse (thanks to the compatibility of homo sapiens-humanoids relationships) species in the known galaxy.

At the 300th anniversary of the inception of the Federation in 2385, the race known as Humans united under the banner of the UPG was stretched over a thousand worlds. Unity was a loose term, "conflicts" arising from trade disagreements and other sparks that lit the flames of war still exist.

Many diverse cultures appeared on the newly colonized worlds. Some clung on to their Earth heritage, some worlds totally colonized by a particular nation of Earth. United under a single banner does not mean national ties were united. On the contrary, some worlds embraced zealous nationalism in their colonization process, intensifying racial and national divides.

On the other hand, there are few human worlds whose cultures were as different like that of Star System MFD-1313x1. Located on the very edge of UPG space, the star system did not even have an official name, only a designation from previous exploration charts.

When UPG ships finally did enter the system for extensive explorations, they found great reserves of valuable crystals and minerals. They also found two neighboring worlds that were bitter enemies. Civil wars between sibling planets were not uncommon, but the UPG fleet was astounded to find the two colonies rigidly segregated by sex.

Unable to mediate peace between the two worlds, the explorers offered both sovereign worlds membership into the UPG.

Distrustful of outsiders, the UPG was rebuffed. Left to their own devices, the two worlds continued their war. But the existence of Star System MFD-1313x1 was now known, and many factions watched the war between Taraak and Mejale with heightened interest...

  


* * *

[i] SDF-1, UEG etc – reference to "Robotech".

[ii] Chenjesu, Alliance of Free Stars etc – reference to the Star Control pc game series.

[iii] GDI, Tiberium etc – reference to the pc game series, "Command & Conquer".

[iv] Legion of Iron – reference to the pc game "Hegemonia: The Legion of Iron".

[v] Vasuda, Great War etc – reference to the pc game, "Descent - Freespace: The Great War".

[vi] UPG – reference from the anime series, "The Irresponsible Captain Taylor".

[vii] Babylon Project – reference to the sci-fi series, "Babylon 5". 2069 is my own adjustment.

[viii] Federation, etc – reference to "Star Trek". 2085 is canon.


	2. Part One: Chance

An

Unlimited Parallel Adventures

presentation

-A Story in the Endless Roads arc-

VANDREAD – A TWIST IN THE TALE

by

ARION WONG

(April 9 2003)

**Part One: Chance **

In orbit of Taraak

Star System MFD-1313x1

2385

      Zarl sighed. He wondered for the millionth time: how the heck did he get himself in such a backwater planet? But then again, he knew the answer.

      Zarl Moenick was a Freeman, a human born and raised in the distant world known as Freeworld. Freeworld was established by the 70,000 humans who had left Earth nearly 400 years ago to fight in the the Liberation War. Zarl was a descendent of those 70,000, who had returned to Earth only to find themselves outcasts and rejected.

      Like other Freemen, Zarl had no ill-feelings towards Earth. They idolized the Exodusians, the humans who became ageless immortals and led the 70,000 volunteers.

      Zarl reflected on that as he glanced at his superior officer. Zarl knew why he had joined the Exodusians' Robotech Defense Force and not Freeworld's own military force. He had worked hard and long to get his rank. To see and work with the man he had grew up hearing stories about. Zarl's superior was one of the greatest heroes the galaxy had ever seen.

      Eadric Lee, Exodusian and 405 years old. He was the Commander-in-Chief of the elite Robotech Defense Force. Captain of the legendary Super Dimensional Fortress-1: Macross. The galaxy's greatest gunman, he had won eight consecutive titles in the Galactic Gunslinger Tournament before the pro-Earth sponsors decide to ban Exodusians from entering. His list of achievements went on and on. Freemen idolized him, alien powers respected him, and the corporation known as Soldat hated him.

      After years in the academy and training, Zarl was elated to be assigned to the living legend. But weeks traveling with the mild-mannered Exodusian only told him that the rumors were true:

      Eadric Lee was a simple man. Modest, unassuming, unorthodox and virtually set on doing things his way: laid-back and easy.

      "Why are we even here?" Commander Zarl Moenick whined to his superior. Years of military training did not prepare him for Eadric Lee's... unusual command style, but it grew on him. Hell, it was like talking to a civilian!

      "Hey hey, it will be an interesting experience!" his superior said lightly.

      "It's boring," Zarl complained.

      The Chinese man rolled his eyes. "Gee, I didn't ask you to come."

      "And tell Admiral Hayes that I lost the commander-in-chief? Yeah right," Zarl snorted in reply.

      "It won't be the first time," Eadric smirked. "You didn't need to tell her anything anyway, she knows my habits all too well," he added.

      "Yeah whatever sir... so what are we doing here anyway?"

      "I told you, we're invited," Eadric answered.

      "I never even heard of this planet before today, sir. 

"Well Zarl my inquisitive subordinate, you should really brush up on your homework. Taraak is at war with its neighbour Mejale."

"War? Are we involved?" Zarl asked in alarm.

"Of course not."

"Then why are we here?"

"It's interesting! One planet of guys, another planet of girls! Isn't it interesting?"

Zarl gave him a look. "You're joking. Just what is here that you're so excited to see that you broke all the regs and get here without telling RDF Command?" Zarl demanded.

"Eh, it seems that they want to demonstrate their new mecha and launch their new spaceship."

      Zarl shook his head in disbelief. "That's it? Not again! Sir, this technology-obssession of yours has got to stop." 

      "You can't stop me," Eadric said happily.

"Sir, no disrespect to the natives, but the RDF and Freeworld have the galaxy's best mecha and ships. What can this little planet offer?"

      Eadric wagged a finger in disapproval. "Now now, don't be like that! Just because we have the best equipment doesn't mean we should be complacent."

      "I'm just being blunt sir. I can't believe you came here without the fleet or at least a fighter escort," Zarl said.

      "Do I look like I even need an escort? Maybe you forgot what ship this is."

      Zarl winced. They were onboard the Little Dragon Lady, Eadric's personal shuttle. Heavily armed and as maneuverable as a fighter, it gained fame when it ran through the heavily armed blockades of Soldat Corporation.

      "Besides, I'm meeting an old friend here," Eadric added.

      Zarl arched an eyebrow. "Who?"

      Eadric merely smiled and turned away, a distant look on his face.

---

      On the other side of the planet, another ship was also descending towards Taraak. Unlike Eadric Lee's powerful shuttle, this ship was decrepit and a single-seater fighter. But most would recognize its distinctive four wings configuration. It had been the pride of the Confed fleets, but this particular X-Wing was old and in need of a major overhaul.

      Indeed, even as it approached the planet's atmosphere, its pilot muttered a prayer for the ship to hold together as it fought the gravity and tremendous heat.

      "Burning up in atmosphere is NOT nice..."

---

      "Well, are you ready?" Eadric asked as he made minor adjustments to his nondescript clothes.

"Ready as I'll ever be, sir... but shouldn't you be wearing something more... official?" Zarl replied. 

      In stark contrast, Zarl was in full dress uniform of the RDF, smartly cut white with black trims, almost a throwback to the US Navy of 20th century.

      "Nah. Too fancy. Too heavy," Eadric said.

      "Heavy, sir?"

      Eadric had a shit eating grin. "Yeah, too many medals."

      Zarl grimaced.

Eadric Lee was a simple man with doe-like eyes and long earlobes. With his Laughing Buddha countenance and a college freshman-like attitude, one can't take him seriously.

      Which is why when the duo stepped down the ramp to be greeted by a full military parade by the Taraak military, nobody paid attention to him.

      Instead, 500 fully uniformed soldiers and officers of Taraak turned smartly on their heels and snapped a salute aimed at Zarl. Zarl immediately returned the salute while Eadric smiled at his discomfort.

      Before Zarl could stage-whisper on ask what to do next, a Taraak man strode forward full of nervous energy and swiped his hand, pumping it in a vigorous shake. He was bald; his head shaped like a bullet and had a uniform and moustache that reminded Eadric of Japan's Imperial Navy during World War II.

      "Welcome! Welcome to Taraak!" the man said enthusiastically, "It is an honor for a distinguished military man such as yourself to grace our world!"

      Eadric coughed discreetly to hide his smile. Seeing no help from the Exodusian, Zarl stopped the handshake and gestured.

      "I'm sorry sir, but –this- is Eadric Lee, Commander-in-Chief of the Robotech Defense Force. I am his aide, Commander Zarl Moenick."

      The Taraak man visibly tried to control his anger and humiliation, a tint of red climbing all the way to his bald pate. The reception entourage gasped at the snafu.

      "I see... Well then, I greet you welcome to Taraak," he said forcefully. Instead of offering a handshake to Lee, he saluted briefly. 

      "Sorry for the misunderstanding," Eadric Lee apologized modestly, "I thank you for the reception, and it is good to be here."

      Mollified, the Taraak entourage applauded.

      ---

      Far way from the posh district was the factories and residential areas of Taraak's third class citizens. The working class provided the labor necessary to run the manufacturing and production arms of the entire world.

      Hibiki Tokai, 16 years old, found the daily grind of working in one such factory absolutely not to his tastes. He mentally tuned out the live telecast of the launching ceremony of Taraak's newest and most advanced battleship, the Ikazuchi.

      He sighed as he trudged wearily to get his share of the sludge known as 'lunch' in the workers' mess hall.

      "Hey kid! When are you gonna get that Vanguard ya promised us!?" a taunting voice yelled.

      Hibiki visibly cringed when reminded of the fact.

      "Ahhh, yer dreamin'! He ain't got the guts!" another voice shouted.

      "Hey shut up!" Hibiki yelled back, his anger getting the best of him. "I'm just waiting for the right moment that's all!"

      "Sure ya are kid! Like, after the ship is gone?"

      The mess hall erupted into laughter.

      "Ahhh alright! I'm going to get the Vanguard right now, this instant!" Hibiki said in exasperation. He jumped to his feet and slammed his dish loudly on the table.

      Silence.

      Then somebody dropped a fork. It was a signal for catcalls and laughter as Hibiki Tokai stomped out of the mess hall, ears burning red.

      ---

      The Mejale-Taraak asteroid belt served as a natural wall or barrier of sorts, preventing massive invasions from either side. Both the men of Taraak and the women of Mejale had viewed the asteroid belt with some comfort, knowing that while it existed, their homeworlds would be safe.

      However, it was a two-edged sword.

      Such a dense asteroid field meant that it was the perfect hiding spot for pirates, smugglers and other riff-raff. With the Taraak men living in a highly regimented (and frankly quite primitive society), that meant those criminals were from Mejale.

      Females, after all, are said to be more cunning and vicious of any species.

      Feared by the Taraak, despised by the Mejale authorities, the Magno Pirates terrorized both sides of the asteroid field.

      Their infamous ship now hangs in the shadow of the asteroid field, the pirates bidding their time as they watched an elaborate ceremony unfold on Taraak...

      ---

      "Man, do the speeches never end? Are they even going to launch the ship today?" Eadric Lee muttered to his aide. They were seated behind the podium on a large stage, before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of Taraak men.

      The bald-headed man that had greeted them at the port were giving a rousing speech, complete with shaking fists and podium pounding, much to the delight of the Taraak listeners.

      Zarl smiled wryly. "Standard procedure, sir. The higher-ranking the speaker, the longer the speech."

      "I never gave a speech longer than 3 minutes," Eadric replied.

      "That's because you suck at it, sir," Zarl shot back.

      "Ouch. You're gonna pay for that, commander."

      "Bite me, chief."

      "Uh-uh, I don't swing that way," Eadric said triumphantly.

      Zarl grimaced, unable to get a comeback. He always lost to his superior in having the last word.

      To his further annoyance, Eadric actually pulled out an old-fashioned pen and paper notepad to scribble something. Zarl leaned over to take a glance.

      "Oh come on! You don't have to keep score!"

      ---

      Paying no heed to the speech which sounded vaguely like sexist propaganda, he drew the cowls of his robe closer to him, hoping to avoid detection. His efforts seemed to be unnecessary, as the Taraak men all around him had their attention glued to the speaker.

      'Like mindless sheep...' the man thought to himself as he surveyed his surroundings. He had somehow managed to jostle his way through the crowd, to get nearer to the stage.

      The crowd around him cheered loudly as the speaker winds up his speech. The people decorated with medals and other high-ranking officials then withdrew to launch the new spaceship.

      All the while, the man kept his attentions on a single person.

      'Well now, I'd better get going myself...'

      ---

      Hibiki gasped with the effort as he sneaked into the hangar. It was no mean effort just to get there. 

      A combination of dexterity, his small size and a good deal of luck allowed him to gain entry into the super-secret Vanguard hangar onboard the spaceship. All the while he thought someone was following him, but he didn't look back, fearing discovery by a guard.

He nearly wet his pants when his contraband transparent glove failed to give him access the first time. He was blind with panic until the palm-sensor finally beeped in confirmation and allowed him in.

      Hibiki's mouth made a large 'O' when he saw the Vanguard Model 99s in the hangar. They stood side by side, lining up the walls, ready to be launched at any time.

      The boy took his time to gape around at the towering humanoid machines, painted in gleaming silver and yellow. Then his excitement spiked when he saw a Vanguard that had a marking sketched onto the front armor plate.

      "I found you!" Hibiki said excitedly. He had carved that mark into that plate. When he told his colleagues in the factory about it he was ridiculed, and then he made the bet to get the armor plate back.

      That was what made him risk his entire life to get here.

      But seeing that the security was so lax made him dream about the impossible. Being a third class citizen, he could never hope to be a soldier, let alone to pilot a highly advanced weapon such as the Vanguard.

      "Damn, you are big," he said in awe of the marked Vanguard. "My very own partner..."

With little difficulty, he climbed up the mecha, -his- mecha.

      His fingers were tantalizingly close to open the cockpit hatch when the entire ship rumbled. 

Then his problem merely increased when the lights came on.

      'Oh no!' he thought in panic.

      He found himself stared at by a group of freshly graduated Taraak cadets.

      It only took them several minutes to regain their wits, monkey-piled him and threw him into the brig.

      Hibiki realized with a sinking feeling that he was caught on a military ship that was about to take off.

      ---

      "Sir? Sir, are you alright?" Zarl called.

      "Wha-?" Eadric replied, startled from his reverie.

      The spaceship had rumbled as it launched on its maiden trial run, reminding Eadric of the days when he and his fellow Exodusians first left Earth nearly four hundred years ago. 

Eadric shook his head to clear the memories away.

      They were now in a hall, where yet another speech is going on, this time a graduation speech as fresh-faced cadets stood at attention. Rows of the new mecha stood proudly behind the podium, but Eadric uncharacteristically did not look interested in them at all.

      "Anything wrong?" Zarl asked.

      "What did I miss?"

      "Nothing much. They just caught a stowaway trying to steal one of the mecha," Zarl said breezily.

      "Hm, pretty lax security," Eadric grunted. Then his wrist watch beeped twice.

      "...sir?" Zarl questioned as Eadric abruptly stood up.

      "Going to check on something, and don't follow me," the Exodusian said firmly as he left the hall discreetly.

      "But sir! They are going to demonstrate the mecha any moment now!" Zarl whispered urgently to no avail.

      ---

      Once away from prying eyes, Eadric touched the face of his wrist watch. The digital clock disappeared and a compass pointing towards a red spot came in its place.

      Following the compass, Eadric took a long, long roundabout detour, slipping discreetly pass the relaxed Taraak guard patrols. To his surprise, his route led him to an abandoned section of the Ikazuchi.

      He entered a darkened hallway, still following his compass.

'Hm, this part of the ship seems much older...' he thought as he scanned his surroundings. 

      "This is sure decrepit for a new ship," a voice interrupted his train of thought.

      Whirling around, Eadric whipped out a silver-colored handgun.

      "Hey, don't point dangerous things at me," the voice said.

      Eadric grinned. "Not as if you can do anything about it," he said as he holstered his enormous looking handgun.

      Arion Wong, former RDF co-founder and now a wanted pirate; stepped into the light with a grin on his face. A roughly sewn robe and cowl covered his features.

      "What's with the Obi-Wan getup?" Eadric asked.

      "Har har," Arion said sarcastically and got rid of the cloth.

      "Last I heard, you were on Libria[i]," Eadric said.

      "A bit of soul-searching."

      "There was a revolution there, was that your doing?"

      Arion shrugged. "A little, but it is not-"

      "Not your fault, yeah right," Eadric finished. "And don't brag how you slipped onboard. So, how are things?"

      "Oh, not bad. Couple of years of run and gun, the usual works."

      "Sheesh."

      Then Arion turned serious. "Why did you ask me to come here?"

      "When are you coming back to Freeworld?" Eadric asked in return.

      Arion glared at him in disbelief. "You asked me to come all the way across the galaxy just for that?" he demanded.

      Eadric merely nodded; a silly grin on his face.

      "The answer is still the same years ago: Never," Arion answered darkly.

      "Don't be stupid," Eadric scoffed, "you're still welcome in Freeworld. Heck, what do you want? A full public pardon?"

      "Heh. Maybe."

      "How am I going to get you a pardon if you don't appear in Freeworld for it?" Eadric demanded.

      Arion sighed. "I just can't trust anyone that much, old friend."

      "Not even me?"

      "Not even you."

      "I don't believe this! After all that we have been through! 400 years of friendship! Come on, we started everything together!"

      "Times change," Arion replied. "I still remember the times –you- came after me with guns blazing."

      Eadric grimaced. "That was a misunderstanding, ok? Anyways it was your fault in the first place. You hijacked the Arcadia[ii] and went on to be a pirate! What else can I do? I'm the sheriff, you're the outlaw."

      "And I'm still an outlaw now," Arion reminded him.

      "Yeah well, not in the Alliance anyway."

      "Huh?" Arion replied, genuinely surprised.

      "You idiot. Don't you ever keep up with the news?"

      "Not really, didn't have time," Arion replied.

      "An Exodusian, not having time. Oh that's a good one," Eadric said sarcastically.

      "I was busy!" Arion said defensively.

      "Pfft. Anyways, many Freemen believed that you had a reason for your piracy, don't ask me how they get that idea. And officially, you never resigned your commission from the RDF. So technically, you're still part of the RDF, a Star Control hero and a Freemen idol just like the rest of us," Eadric explained with a flourish.

      Arion stared at him in disbelief.

      "Wait wait, what do you mean? I'm cleared?"

      "Only in the Alliance of Free Stars," Eadric admitted. "But we're working on the full pardon from the United Federation of Planets as well."

      "You won't get it," Arion said negatively, "not while Soldat Corp still has Earth's votes in its pockets."

      "Hey, it's a start," Eadric shrugged. "These things take time you know. After all, you –did- cause mayhem in the shipping lines."

      "Only with Soldat ships. I never attacked anything else," Arion clarified.

      Eadric sighed. He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

      "Listen, I hate Soldat just as much as you do. But your one-man war isn't gonna work. We have to do it by the proper way," he said.

      "You mean with politics," Arion sneered. "It was politics that got us in this mess in the first place!"

      "No, it was –your- stubbornness that got –you- in this mess! Damn it!" Eadric yelled angrily.

      Stunned by his anger, Arion said nothing.

      "That's right," Eadric said. "And until you come back to Alliance space to make your stand and publicize your case, no one is going to trust you!"

      "Is that all that's going to take?" Arion asked wryly.

      "Is that really too hard to believe?" Eadric countered.

      "I don't know what to believe anymore."

      Eadric took out his handgun and aimed it at him.

      "You can believe in my friendship, Arion," he said. "or I can knock you out and bring you back forcibly if I have to."

      "Heh. You can try," Arion scoffed as he took out his own gun.

      Just then the entire ship shook, nearly knocking them off their feet. Eadric's communication badge beeped urgently. With annoyance, he activated it with a touch.

      "Yeah, Lee here. Wassup?"

      "Sir, where are you!?" Zarl's voice came in a panic.

      "Calm down. What happened just now?"

      "I'm not sure sir! There's some sort of emergency going on!"

      Eadric grimaced. "Typical timing," he complained. "Nevermind. Get out with the Dragon Lady."

      "I'm already at your ship sir, but I can't just leave you!" Zarl protested.

      "Zarl, if you let my ship get destroyed in this 'emergency', I'll make sure you'll pay very dearly for it," Eadric promised, causing Arion to crack a grin.

      "But sir! What are you going to do!?"

      "Don't worry, should anything major happens, go back and contact Admiral Hayes. She will know what to do."

      "Sir, I don't think that's a good idea," Zarl insisted.

      "You either do it or I'll order you to do it! Now move!"

      "Sir, yes sir!"

      Eadric sighed as he cut the communications.

      "Huh. Looks like you got an eager side-kick there," Arion teased.

      "Yeah. And still wet behind the ears..." Eadric said.

      "So, what now?"

      "Let's see what's happening. Knowing our luck, there could be a war going on," Eadric shrugged.

      "Huh. Good thing that you told him to get lost," Arion scoffed.

      "Yeap. Eager side-kicks always get killed."

---

      Another thunderous explosion shook the ship. One minute Hibiki was trying to persuade a floating droid to free him, the next he was coughing at the resulting smoke in his cell. 

Hibiki wondered what misfortunate had befallen him now. But when the smoke cleared, he was overjoyed to see the energy bars on his cell had disappeared. Plus, the droid that was punishing him with jolts of electricity lay short-circuited on the ground.

He briefly wondered on what to do with the droid. But his engineer instincts took over and he grabbed the oval-shaped machine under his arm and ran.

      ---

      Red lights flashed wildly and the sirens wailed as Eadric and Arion ran down the corridors. Then they found out that there really was a war going on, because panicked voices filtered through the speakers.

      "...launch all the Vanguards!"

      "Enemies have infiltrated the ship!!"

      Then a sterner voice cut through the turmoil.

      "Prepare for separation of the old module!"

      Arion and Eadric shared a puzzled look as they ran.

      "Separation? What does that mean?" Eadric asked.

      "Is this your first time on this ship?" Arion asked back.

      "Yeah!"

      "It's my first time too, so don't ask me!" Arion snapped.

      ---

      Hibiki was panicking. There was nobody around as he ran aimlessly. All that was on his mind was to get to his Vanguard and get the hell away from the mess.

      "No way I'm dying here!" he gritted his teeth. He was so focused on getting away that he paid no attention to the huge round object that dominated the background. It was ringed with lines and emitting a soft glow of white light.

      Hibiki Tokai would find it interesting, but his attention was drawn elsewhere when an explosion suddenly engulfed him.

      ---

      "I guess this is the secondary bridge," Eadric said.

      "Looks like it hasn't been used for a while," Arion commented. Indeed, the area seemed to have been abandoned long ago.

      They were in a command center filled with consoles and monitors. Eadric tapped several keys and the screens came to life.

      "You sure you know what you're doing?" Arion asked warily.

      "Hmm, this OS is old... but I recognize it. Seems to be a Legion variant or something..." Eadric mused aloud as his fingers danced on the keyboard.

      "Look, skip on the history lesson! What's happening out there?" Arion demanded.

      "Damn! Looks like the Taraak people separated this section of the ship and had moved away!" Eadric exclaimed.

      "What!? Is there a way out of here?!"

      "That's what I'm trying to find out!"

      "Well hurry up then! I've got a bad feeling about this," Arion said.

      "I hate it when you say that," Eadric muttered.

      "Don't move!" an electronically modified voice exclaimed behind them.

      "Aw crap," Arion cursed.

      They raised their hands up in the air and turned around warily.

      Three figures dressed in comically colored suits armed with claw-like fingers that their laser rifles aimed at the two Exodusians. To the duo's further bewilderment, the figures wore masks with almost tribal-like designs... or old, black-eyed grey Martians.

      "Geez, what's with that look," Arion complained.

      "Haha, guess they didn't have fashion sense," Eadric laughed.

      "Freeze! Who are you and what are you doing here?" one of the figures demanded.

      Arion shrugged. "Ask him," he said flippantly and nodded towards Eadric.

      "Eh, I was trying to catch him when all hell broke loose," Eadric said, just as flippantly.

      "Vice-commander, what do we do with them?"

      "Get rid of them," the vice-commander replied.

      "Is that alright?" the third asked.

      "They are just worthless men."

      Arion and Eadric glanced at each other and chuckled.

      "What's so funny?" the vice-commander demanded.

      "You have a way out from here?" Eadric asked.

      "Of course. And don't expect us to give you a ride," BC replied.

      "Yeah, you are Taraak men after all!" a suited figure added.

"Your problem is with Taraak has nothing to do with us," Arion said calmly.

      "We're just about to shoot each other when your attack interrupted us," Eadric clarified.

      Then the entire area shook wildly, nearly knocking all of them off their feet. The two Exodusians immediately took advantage of the disorientation and charged.

      Seconds later, the trio of suited figures found themselves disarmed and being pointed at with their own weapons.

      "I thank you for your weapons," Arion said sarcastically.

      "Please, can you get rid of those ugly suits?" Eadric asked conversationally.

      The suited figures glanced at each other. They slowly and calmly stripped off the oversized suits to reveal three women: a long, silver-haired and tanned woman, a bespectacled girl and a lady with very small eyes.

      "Women?"

      Eadric shrugged. "They must be from Mejale."

      "This is one screwed-up scenario," Arion grumbled.

      "You seem pretty confident. You didn't run away from us like the other men," the silver-haired woman said.

      "Why would I?" Arion asked.

      "You're not afraid?" the one with glasses asked.

      "Nope."

      "Oh my, that is interesting," the last of the three women remarked.

      "What do you hope to accomplish by aiming those weapons at us? You will be killed by our crew later anyway," silver-hair said.

      "Ah. You might have some difficulty with that at the moment. Please remember I'm the one with the weapon, not you," Arion said.

      Silver-hair grinned. With a hand signal, all three women raised a hand and pointed their fists at the Exodusian.

      For the first time, Arion and Eadric noticed that they were wearing rings which glowed warningly in red.

      "These rings are weapons too," silver-hair said smugly.

      "Oh, you can shoot us, but we got nothing to lose," Eadric said.

      "We can shoot you back, and at least one of you will be injured or even killed," Arion continued.

      "Are you actually threatening us?" silver-hair asked in disbelief.

      "Think of it as a negotiation process," Eadric replied. "Get us out of here, then give us a ship and we'll leave."

      "Vice-commander, what do we do?" silver-hair's companions asked worriedly.

      "We have no choice... we have to avoid unnecessary injuries now. We'll let the Boss decide later," she conceded.

      The Exodusians grinned.

      Then a high-pitched warning sounded from the console.

      "Uh-oh, that can't be good," Arion muttered.

      Heedless of the consequences, Eadric turned his back on the suited figures and examined the console.

      "Oh shit! There's a missile lock on this ship!"

      "Hell! Can we move this hunk and evade!?" Arion yelled.

      "There's no power! Damn it!"

      The three women were alarmed as well. Silver-hair immediately took out a communicator of sorts.

      "Boss!"

      An old woman's voice quickly came through the communicator. "BC! Yes, I see it too. It's regrettable but we have to abandon the catch. Get everyone out now!"

      "Understood! Meia, did you hear the Boss? Withdraw!"

      "Affirmative. We'll pull out once we get Dita," a new voice came back.

      BC snapped her communicator shut.

      "Hm. Looks like survival is our mutual priority right now," BC said calmly.

      "Shall we leave then?" Arion asked with exaggerated politeness.

      "Yes, take us to your leader," Eadric said with a grin.

      The women were confused when Arion laughed at that comment.

      ---

      When Hibiki awakened, he found himself being smothered by a soft, leathery feature. He groped the palm-sized... thing... that hung over his head.

      "What the heck is this?" he asked blearily.

      Then his eyes widened when he saw what it was attached to. Apparently, he was grabbing the chest of one of the evil women invaders.

      "Ahh! Get away from me!" Hibiki yelled, scooting away.

      "Ooh, it's an alien!" the suited figure gushed.

      "Alien?" Hibiki repeated dubiously.

      Then the figure opened its suit to reveal a bubbly, bright-eyed, long-haired woman.

      "My first encounter with an alien! Hi, my name is Dita!" she exclaimed excitedly.

      "Uh, hi," Hibiki laughed nervously. "Ahhh! Evil women are coming for my liver!" he screamed and ran away.

      "Mr. Alien!" Dita cried out.

      "Dita! Get back to your Dread, we're leaving!" a voice yelled from high above.

      She looked up to see a blue-haired woman together with a daringly dressed blonde.

      "But, leader Meia!" Dita protested.

      "I said get to your Dread! Now!" the blue-haired woman repeated firmly.

      "Aye," Dita said, depressed.

      ---

      "What are those women doing!?" the bald-headed man demanded.

      "It looks like they are doing an emergency dock, sir. The red pirate ship is linked to the old module. We think they are evacuating their personnel when they detected our missile lock."

      "Then we'll blow them all to hell before they do!"

      "Commander! Please reconsider!"

      "There is no choice! I'd rather see that module destroyed than let it fall into the hands of those evil women!" the commander replied. 

With a vengeance, he stabbed the red button. The ship shuddered as two massive missiles detached and headed straight towards the old module and the red pirate ship...

      ---

      "Boss, this is BC."

      "How's the evacuation?"

      BC glanced back to see the two Exodusians waving back at her cheerfully without a care in the world.

      "I'm now in the shuttle and headed back towards you. We also have... some visitors with us," BC reported.

      "Visitors?"

      "I'll explain later. Boss, the evacuation is done except for three Dreads," BC said.

      "Get those Dreads out immediately! Those stupid men have fired their missiles!"

      ---

      "Dita, what are you doing?!" Meia yelled.

      "My Dread is stuck! I can't get out!" Dita cried in panic.

      "Jura, can you help her?"

      The blonde-haired woman's face came on her screen. "And how am I supposed to do that?!" she demanded.

      Then there was a brilliant blue flash...

      ---

      Hibiki gasped and thank the stars when he found his Vanguard still in the hangar untouched.

      "Let's get outta here, partner!" he said as he climbed into the cockpit. He dumped the short-circuited droid at his feet and started to struggle with the buttons, levers and joysticks.

      "Wait, I don't know how to use this!" Hibiki realized frantically.

      Then there was a brilliant blue flash...

      ---

      "Uh-oh. Pretty blue light," Arion said as he stared out from the shuttle's window.

      "Blue? Tell me that's not a Reflex engine!" Eadric shouted and rushed towards a window to see for himself.

      It gave the three women the perfect opportunity to knock the two distracted men unconscious.

      "Not again...' Arion muttered even as he dropped face-first onto the cold floor.

      ---

      "What the hell happened!?" Zarl demanded hotly.

      "We destroyed our property along with those evil pirates," the Taraak commander replied.

      "Commander Eadric Lee was onboard that module!"

      The Taraak officer shook his head. "I wish to inform you that there is absolutely no trace left of the pirates, -or- the module."

      Zarl slumped into his chair, shell-shocked.

      "Your commander has been killed. I'm sorry for what happened, but now you see what we're up against," the Taraak officer said, not sorry in the least.

      Zarl heard him but paid no attention.

      "I really lost the Commander-in-Chief..." he whispered to himself.

  


* * *

[i] Libria – reference to the movie "Equilibrium". Excellent action movie IMHO...

[ii] Arcadia – Captain Harlock's ship ^^


	3. Part Two: Luck

**Part Two: Luck**

      Hibiki found himself immersed in a sea of blue plasma. It surrounded his entire awareness, showing up wherever he looked. He frantically tried to peel it off his body, but they refused to go away.

      ...thump thump thump... the blue touched him and refused to let go... thump thump thump...

      Mysterious shadows and silhouettes swirl around him, asking him questions... questions he did not know the answers to.

      When he awoke gasping for air, he found himself back in yet another cell.

      "You're awake. Good, I thought you're having a hallucination episode," a long-haired man said clinically.

      "Ah, it's just a nightmare," another man said dismissively. He had yellowish hair, complete with the charm and ooze of a merchant.

      "W-where am I? Who are you?" Hibiki asked as he glanced around.

      "I'm Duero McFile. We have been captured by the Mejale women. But who are you? You are dressed like a third class citizen."

      "Hey, I recognize you," the other man said. "You're the one trying to steal one of the Vanguards!"

      "So what if I'm third class!?" Hibiki yelled, "I'm Hibiki Tokai. Who the hell made the choice for me anyway!?"

      "Hey hey, no need to be angry. Here, I'm Bart Garsus," the man said and offered a handshake, which Hibiki took hesitantly. "Listen, as long as we're all prisoners, we shouldn't argue about classes. I say we have to work together to escape!"

      "Escape? We don't even know where we are," Duero said.

      "Don't give up hope so soon! You want to get eaten!?" Bart asked.

      "Yeah, come on, don't you want to get away from the women?" Hibiki added.

      Duero considered the question for a while. Then he smiled. "I don't mind them. It's interesting!"

      ---

"The hell is this," Arion complained as he rubbed the back of his head slowly.

"I dunno. Looks like a prison cell," Eadric replied flippantly.

Arion growled as he surveyed the glowing energy bars. "Damn it, getting captured is not in my plans!"

"Not mine either. Look, let's just chill out until everything gets sorted out, ok?" Eadric suggested.

"Don't be stupid! I'm not going to wait for one of those women come and kill us!" Arion said.

Eadric gave him a look.

"Oh alright," Arion muttered in defeat.

"Killing an Exodusian, yahright," Eadric muttered sarcastically.

Both sat down on the cold floor in frustration. They can't believe that had let down their guard so easily back on the shuttle, to be taken captives so simply by three women.

Then the door slid open. A crone complete with a walking stick and dressed in a robe walked into the room escorted by silver-hair and several heavily-armed Mejale pirates.

"Oh, it's what's-her-name," Arion said bluntly.

The elderly crone turned to look at silver-hair. "So BC, these are the men that have caused you so much trouble?"

The silver-haired woman smirked. "Yes, although the situation was remedied quickly enough."

"Look, can someone just explain what's going on here?" Arion demanded.

The old woman narrowed her eyes. "I am Magno Vivian, the commander of the Magno Pirates. You're now our prisoners."

Arion and Eadric were stunned, their jaws hanging open.

Then Eadric snickered.

"Not a word," Arion growled in warning.

"Bwah ha ha ha ha!" Eadric laughed uncontrollably. He doubled over and slapped his knee.

"Shut up!" Arion yelled.

"Ha ha ha!" Eadric continued, tears of laughter lining his eyes.

Magno and her pirates watched with surprise as the laughter continued. Eadric pointed a shaking finger at Arion, who was simmering with anger.

"Y-you! A pirate! Caught by pirates! Bwah hahahaha!" Eadric managed to gasp in between his laughing.

"Oh great, I'll never live this down," Arion muttered in exasperation.

Eadric laughed so hard that he collapsed onto the floor, still laughing.

"Do me a favor. Kill him," Arion begged his captors.

"I've never heard of a Taraak pirate," Buzam said instead.

"I never said I was from Taraak," Arion replied evasively.

Magno lifted her head to stare at him. "You're an outsider?"

"We're both from the Inner Sphere[i] originally," Arion clarified.

"The Inner Sphere? What are you doing on this Taraak ship?" Buzam demanded.

"I have no idea," Arion grumbled. He noticed that several of the female pirates began to back away and gripped their weapons tighter the moment Magno called him an outsider.

Eadric finally calmed down and wiped his tears. "My name is Eadric Lee, and he is Arion Wong," he said and paused. 

There was no reaction from the women. Apparently, they weren't famous in Mejale.

Eadric coughed. "Actually, I was invited here by the Taraak government. We have absolutely nothing to do with the war between Mejale and Taraak."

Buzam placed her hands on her shapely hips, eyes narrowed as she sized up the two men. "We have no way of confirming your claims. For all we know, you could be Taraak spies."

Arion raised a hand like a student. "I have a suggestion."

Magno arched an eyebrow in askance.

"Like he said, I'm a pirate. He's been after me for years. If you give us back our weapons, we'll finish our vendetta right here and now," Arion said with a wolfish grin.

Immediately Eadric straightened up. "You're worth more if I get you alive, ya know."

"Really? How much is the bounty on my head?" Arion asked.

"At last check, about nineteen million," Eadric instantly replied.

"That little!?" Arion yelled indignantly.

Eadric shrugged. "Well, you –have- been out of the loop for a while, and they dropped you to a Category C bounty. In fact, the only reason I'm still hounding you is because you damaged my ship the last time we met."

"Oh come on, that was a long time ago!"

"Nuh-uh, I still owe money for the repairs!"

Their captors watched and listened incredulously as the bizarre conversation wore on. Magno shook her head in disbelief and signaled for her crew to leave the two men alone in their cell.

Arion and Eadric didn't even notice them leaving.

---

"Well, what do you think, BC?" Magno asked as they traveled to another part of the ship.

"It's hard to believe, but they could be telling the truth. Those two showed absolutely no reaction to us women, unlike other Taraak men," BC conceded.

"Hmph. Maybe the Pexis did something to them as well, like what it did to the ship," Magno grumbled.

She was referring to the fact that a crystallized blue entity had taken over the pirate ship, fusing it with the old Taraak module into one single form. Despite their best efforts to free themselves, the crystal substance refused to budge and invaded virtually all the important functions of the ship, modifying and transforming whatever it pleased.

BC took the captain's comment as a request for a report. She took out her communicator. "Gascogne, what's our status?"

"Huh. Parfet says the engines are still down. We only have two Dreads... well, five if you include the other three Dreads, and one of the men's Vanguards..." 

"What's wrong with the other three Dreads?" Magno asked, detecting Gascogne's doubtful voice.

"Those Dreads belong to Meia, Jura and Dita... well, I'm not sure if there's anything wrong... Anyways, Parfet's doing her best to get us moving. And we tried to cut the blue crystals but nothing seems to work."

"Understood. Keep trying," BC encouraged and ended the call.

"Now let us take a look at the others," Magno grinned, "maybe they are just as insane as those two."

"I doubt it. From Meia's report, the other men we captured were... more typical in their behavior," BC said.

"Well, they are more than what they seem to be," Magno said slowly. BC nodded in agreement.

Magno was a little disappointed when she saw the prisoners.

"Why, they are just children," she remarked when she laid her eyes on Hibiki Tokai, Duero McFile and Bart Garsus.

"Sorry to make you come all the way here, captain," a blue-haired woman apologized. The light glinted off her odd headpiece.

"No need for that, Meia," Magno said dismissively. "So, these are the men you captured?"

Meia nodded curtly. "Yes. They were left behind when the ship separated and launched their life pods."

"What were they doing?" Magno asked.

"I saw the short one climbing up one of the men's fighters. The one with the long-hair said he was a doctor and stayed behind to help our injuries. And I found the last one hiding from the battle," Meia said.

"Interesting. They are totally different than the ones BC caught," Magno commented.

Meia looked at BC in surprise. "You caught some as well?"

"Yes, though they say they aren't Taraak soldiers."

"Of course they are Taraak soldiers," the man known as Bart Garsus quipped, "and I totally understand why they would deny it."

"Because you're a coward-pyoro!" 

Everybody looked at the source of the electronic voice. It belonged to the droid that Hibiki had rescued, only it had sprouted comical legs, arms and even a pair of rounded eyes.

"A Navigation droid! Now that brings up old memories," Magno said, scrutinizing the hyper-active droid that was jumping up and down excitedly.

"A what?" Bart asked.

"She implies that she had seen one of the droids before. How is that possible?" Duero wondered, his visible eye staring intently at Magno. His other eye was entirely covered by his unorthodox hairstyle.

"Yeah! This is a men's ship!" Hibiki said with bravado.

"You ignorant kid. But I suppose your forefathers would keep it a secret from you. This old ship was part of a colonization fleet from Earth a very long time ago. Your grandfathers cut off this section and stole it," Magno explained.

The Taraak men stared at her, aghast.

"That can't be true!" Hibiki yelled.

"Yes, it's true. They stole this ship. But at least they repaired everything and even upgraded some facilities-pyoro," the droid said.

"And so we're back where everything started. Naturally, we want this ship back. The question is, what should we do with you three?" Magno asked rhetorically.

"We should throw them out of the airlock," Meia said immediately.

"What about the others?" BC asked.

Magno contemplated the matter for a while.

"Let's not be hasty. I have been craving for some Taraak delicacies for quite some time now..." Magno grinned and licked her lips viciously.

Hibiki gulped and sweated heavily. "They really are gonna eat our livers!"

      Then the intercom beeped. Magno tapped it with her walking stick.

      "Captain Magno?"

      "Ezra, what is it?" Magno said.

      "Something is approaching us at high speeds," Ezra reported.

      "Taraak reinforcements?" BC demanded.

      "Somehow, I don't think so..."

      Then the entire ship shook.

      "They are attacking!" Ezra exclaimed.

      "Meia! Launch the Dreads!" Magno commanded. The blue-haired leader of their fighter wing gave a simple nod and ran out.

      "BC, head to the bridge and take over."

      BC nodded and turned to leave when yet another attack rocked the ship violently and even knocking off the lights in the room. When the lights came back on, an unconscious Mejale woman was pinned underneath the rubble.

      "Don't move her!" Duero said sharply. He leapt over the debris and knelt to examine the woman. When her colleagues pointed their weapons at him, he smiled.

      "Don't worry, I'm a doctor!"

      To Hibiki and Bart's amazement, the Mejale pirates and Duero worked together to free the unconscious woman.

      Bart seized the opportunity to take advantage of the goodwill. He stood up and caught the attention of Magno.

      "Alright, we might be enemies. But right now we have to work together like my friend there to survive," he said.

      "Your friend is a doctor. What can –you- offer us?" Magno asked bluntly.

      Bart coughed. "Ahem. The fact is, I'm a trained helmsman of this ship."

      "He's lying! He's lying!" Pyoro yelled.

      "Pyoyo, keep quiet," Magno said sternly. The droid slumped in a chastened manner.

      "So, you're a helmsman. Well, what do you propose then?" Magno asked.

      "I suggest a cease-fire. We will, er, find ways to work together until the situation improves," Bart said hesitantly.

      "That's an interesting idea. Fine, let's do it."

      Bart stared at her.

      "BC! I'll take this one to the bridge. Take the other one to the hangar get him to pilot the remaining Vanguard," Magno said and left the room with Bart in tow.

      "Uh... I'm not a fighter... I'm just an engineer," Hibiki muttered.

      BC frowned. "So what are you doing here then?"

      Hibiki laughed nervously. "I, uh, I made a stupid bet to steal one of the Vanguards... and I couldn't back off at the last moment..."  "I thought men are proud creatures. Looks like our data was wrong," BC said. Even though she didn't say it in a sneering tone, it deeply affected Hibiki.

      "I just thought you might want to know, I'm not exactly combat qualified..." he mumbled.

      "You came onboard because of pride. But now when things really matter, when life or death is on the line, you're making excuses? Men or women, it doesn't matter now. If you can't change who you are, what's the point of your existence?" BC demanded.

      She shook her head when Hibiki couldn't respond. "You're useless now. I'll put you in with the other men. Maybe their insanity will help you grow a backbone."

      ---

      "Not another attack," Arion groaned when the ship shook. When Eadric didn't respond, he turned around. "Hey, are you even listening!?"

      "Interesting crystal formation," Eadric mumbled as he stared off into the distance.

      "Just what the heck are you babbling about?"

      "Take a look, there," Eadric pointed to a distance. "Every few minutes, those crystals expand and cover more of that hallway. Like as if it's alive."

      "I think we should get away now, not when there's another problem-" Arion stopped when he heard footsteps.

      BC appeared with Hibiki behind her. She deactivated the energy bars, tossed Hibiki in roughly and quickly reactivated it again.

      "Hey, what's going on? And who's this kid?" Arion demanded.

      "We're under attack by hostile aliens. As for him, he's just a coward," BC said coldly and left.

      "Coward? What does she mean? Hey kid, talk to me!" Arion asked.

      Hibiki slumped onto the floor. "I'm just an engineer... they wanted me to go out and fight..."

      "What's happening out there? What did she mean hostile aliens?" Eadric asked urgently.

      "I don't know! Leave me alone!!" Hibiki yelled.

      Arion growled. He grabbed Hibiki by the collars and dragged him off his feet.

      "Listen kid, I don't know what happened to you and I don't care. But curling up into a ball while there's fighting going on won't help anybody. We're not even from your planet and we're in the shit –your- people made."

      He threw Hibiki onto the floor. "Look at us! Do you see us whining about it!?"

      Hibiki said nothing, and Arion threw his hands up in disgust. Eadric knelt near the boy and smiled.

      "Don't worry about it kid. Everyone has the combat jitters. So, just leave it to us," he said.

      Hibiki stared at them. "What? What do you mean? What are you planning to do?"

      "Fight, of course! I'm guessing the ship is taking a pounding, otherwise they wouldn't ask a Taraak to fight for them," Eadric said as a matter of fact.

       "B-but, he just said it's our problem! Why are you getting involved!?" Hibiki asked.

      "Kid, if we don't fight, we'll all die here," Arion said simply. He nodded to Eadric, who tapped his wristwatch several times. Aiming it at the control panel, a single needle flew out and short-circuited it. The energy bars disappeared.

      "Stay here and be safe," Eadric said.

      They ran out, leaving Hibiki all alone in the cell, reflecting on their words.

      ---

      "Uh, what is this place?" Bart asked as he surveyed the area.

      "This is the bridge. The Pexis seems to have modified everything," Magno told him.

      "Oh, yes, yes of course! It's men's secret technology after all!" Bart said hastily.

      "Now get going and get us out of here!" Magno said sharply.

      "G-get going, of course..." Bart muttered. He stared at the pool of blue plasma warily. Just as he leaned over to look, a swirl of energy launched up and pulled him under.

      "Well, he really seems to know something about it," Magno marveled.

      Inside the pool, Bart found himself cold, surrounded by a sea of blue energy. Not to mention he was naked.

      "What what!? What is this!?" 

Extremely realistic screens of the battle outside popped up all around him. It was meant to give the navigator a clear view of the exterior.

      Unfortunately, it was too realistic for the tastes of Bart Garsus. Every enemy pass, every explosion felt all too real. He frantically tried to move away from the incoming hits.

      "G-get away from me!!" he screamed.

      Outside, the ship actually moved, albeit with haphazard speed and direction. 

      "At least it's moving, it's a start," Magno said.

      "He doesn't know how it works-pyoro" Pyoro moaned.

      "Captain! We... we have something here..." one of the bridge bunnies reported hesitantly.

      "What is it?" Magno asked as she sat down comfortably on her raised seat in the middle of the bridge.

      A video screen popped up and a masculine face with green hair and a stalk of grass in her teeth appeared.

      "Gascogne, what's the problem?"

      The muscular woman in the screen shrugged. "Well, see for yourself," she said.

      The video panned around to show Dita, Jura and Meia arguing with the two Exodusians.

      "...oh come on! I can fly real good!" one of the males half-pleaded, half-bragged.

      "Well, not as good as –me- but..." the other man said.

      "Oh shut up."

      "We don't need your help!" Meia shot back.

      "But leader, they seem to be good aliens!" Dita said.

      "But that's Barnette's ship! Where is she in times like this?" Jura demanded to the ceiling.

      "She's still in the bacterial shower," Gascogne laughed from off camera.

      Magno stared at the argument. "How did they get out of the cell? What do they want?" she asked open-mouthed.

      Gascogne walked towards the arguing group, her tall presence immediately silencing everyone. "I don't know, but they don't seem too bad. I say let them fight. So what if they get killed?"

      "Hey, you got two other spare... what, Dreads? Let us fly them! 'Sides, your crew is busy getting this ship moving," one of the males said.

      "Madam," the one who called himself Eadric said formally, "we won't run away. I don't think there's any place we can run to right now. So let's just-"

      "Let's just work together for now, is that what you're saying? I've heard that before," Magno interrupted with a smile.

      "Yup."

      "Captain, our usual Dreads have been changed by the Pexis. I think we should take the unchanged ones to avoid unexpected situations in battle," Meia said.

      "You will have to learn to use them again then. Gascogne, give them two Dreads. Let see if those men can really fight," Magno replied.

      "Captain!" Meia started to protest, when yet another blast rocked the ship.

      "You heard her. You two, get to your Dreads down here. I'll give you guys our usual loadout," Gascogne said. Behind her, young women dressed like waitresses tapped their consoles quickly.

      Eadric and Arion then punched fists.

      "Kick Ass-" Arion began.

      "-and Take Names!" Eadric finished as they ran towards the Dreads.

"I suggest you get going," Gascogne said benignly to Meia. Simmering with anger, the Dread wing leader nodded curtly.

---

      "This is just like old times," Arion said.

      "It has been a while since we even flew together, dude. Sure brings back a lot of memories," Eadric replied.

      "You sure you can fly one of these?" Arion asked as he surveyed his Dread's controls. It all seemed vaguely similar. He tentatively gripped the stick and felt the thrum of the engines.

      "Hah! You need to ask me that?" Eadric said cockily from his own fighter.

      "Looks like a Kilrathi's Dralthi[ii] fighter to me," Arion replied with a grin, "except everything's more brightly colored."

      "Hey you two, everything ok?" Gascogne asked.

      "EZ as 1-2-3," Eadric said.

      "If you say so. Launch, those aliens are coming in for another pass," she said calmly.

      "Alright, let's do this!" Eadric yelled. He pushed the throttle forward and his Dread burst into space like a slingshot.

      ---

      "How is it over there?" Meia asked from the cockpit of her transformed Dread. Everything was familiar, and yet, there were more than subtle changes.

      "The response rate is incredible!" Jura exclaimed from her own transformed Dread.

      "Take care, we don't know what's been done to the Dreads," Meia cautioned as she evaded of the enemies.

Several brilliant lights flashed off her window and she glanced to look. Dita's Dread easily outpaced the enemies and left dozens of them in pieces.

      "Everything's has been powered up! I'm sure of it!" Dita said excitedly in her blue Dread. But even more of the enemy appeared from the main enemy vessel.

      The smaller enemies had geometric and yet organic shapes, bizarre mismatches of triangles and four limb-like appendages like arms and legs. The main enemy ship was an odd, pale colored ship shaped like a fat teardrop. Whenever a group of the smaller ships get destroyed, the mothership would yawn open and spew cubes, cubes that would separate into more enemies.

      "There's just too many of them!" Jura complained as she spun her Dread wildly to evade.

      "We need to take out the main enemy, but we will leave our own ship defenseless if we do," Meia stated. Despite her calm observation, a sense of frustration bubbled underneath.

      "Howdy, might we be of service?" Eadric said. The two Dreads came at angle towards them, leaving destroyed enemies in their wake.

      "Wow wow wow! Good aliens have come to help us!" Dita cheered excitedly.

      "Somebody shut her up," Arion muttered.

      "It's the men," Meia seethed.

      "Yeah, nice to see you too," Arion snorted. "Listen, either you attack the mothership or we do. Either way, one group has to stay back and protect your ship."

      "Why do you even bother?" Meia said through gritted teeth. "We attacked you and now you're helping us?"

      "Hoi Arion, check your 6 o'clock!" Eadric yelled in warning.

      "Sorry, I'm not free at that time, please try later," Arion said flippantly as he banked the Dread in a tight circle, shooting down enemies in the process before winding up behind another enemy, which he also destroyed with ease.

      Meia released a breath that she didn't she was holding. She cleared her mind and made a decision.

      "Jura, Dita, form up on me. We'll take the fight to the mothership."

      "Roger!"

      Meia glared at the men's images who awaited her orders. "If you men let anything happen to our ship..."

      "Don't worry, we'll need it for a ride back anyway," Eadric said. "Hey Arion, let's pull back and defend the ship."

      As the two Dreads peeled off and headed back to defend their ship, Meia could still hear traces of their conversation.

      "You know, those enemies look pretty damned familiar."

      "Ring any bells?"

      "Not right now. Kinda like a déjà vu feeling."

      "I got a bad feeling about this."

      "I –hate- it when you say that."

---

      "Well BC, looks like those two are quite useful after all," Magno commented as she watched the battle.

      "They are not typical Taraak men," BC admitted.

      "But where's the short boy I told you to get the Vanguard?"

      BC shook her head. "He's not a fighter. He couldn't take the pressure and-"

      A monitor screen lit up. To their surprise, it was Hibiki on the screen.

      "Hey! Where's my Vanguard!?" he demanded.

      Magno turned to look up at her assistant. "What is this about?" 

      "Let me handle this one, Boss," BC replied. "What do you want to do with it?" BC asked.

      "To fight!"

      "Are you sure you can do it?"

      "I don't want to be what I am now! I want to change! To be stronger, to be better!" Hibiki stated determinedly.

      "Is that all?"

      "I want to prove... to prove that my existence really matters!"

      Magno and BC smiled at his answer. She tapped a key on the console.

      "Follow the lights. It will lead you to your Vanguard."

      "Thanks! You won't regret it!" Hibiki called as he ran.

      ---

      "Uh, not to sound whiny or anything, but can you girls hurry up with 'destroying-the-mothership' plan over there? We're getting creamed out here," Arion said as he struggled with the controls.

      "We're working on it," Meia gritted.

      Then the main mothership increased its speed and followed the pirates.

      "It's headed this way! Arion, defensive positions!" Eadric yelled.

      "What defensive positions!?" Arion demanded as his Dread punched through an enemy formation.

      "There's reinforcement on the way, though we don't know what he can do yet," Magno said over the communications.

      "Reinforcement?" Meia asked.

      "'He'"? Eadric echoed.

      They had their answer a second later as a gold-colored, modified Vanguard burst into the battle scene.

      "I want to change!" Hibiki's voice yelled.

      "It's him! He's a good alien! I knew it!" Dita exclaimed.

      "Hey, it's the kid. Looks like your words did something," Eadric said to Arion.

      "Bah. I did nothing," Arion scoffed. But he can't help grinning.

---

Inside the Vanguard, Hibiki gripped his controls with nervous excitement. 

"I can't fail now... not now!" he said. The lights in his cockpit glowed softly, calming him down. He reached down to touch the console.

"Partner, if you can change, so can I!" he said confidently. He charged towards the battle.

"Thunder Fist!" he yelled and punched space.

Nothing happened.

Four of the enemies cornered him and fired.

---

"What the hell was that all about?" Arion commented.

"Hm. Must have watched too many cartoons," Eadric replied.

---

"Alright, I screwed up on that. What about this!?" Hibiki said, dismissing his mistake. The Vanguard pulled out a sword with an oversized blade. Hibiki spun it with quickly and destroyed the four enemies with ease.

"Oraaaa!" Hibiki yelled as a battle cry. The Vanguard blasted towards the enemy mothership.

To everyone's shock, the huge ship actually slowed down to face the Vanguard.

---

"He's going to get killed," Magno remarked.

"But if there's a miracle, a lot will have to change..." BC said.

---

"You idiot! Get back here!" Arion shouted in horror. He pushed his Dread to catch up.

Meia did the same thing, because Dita had carelessly increased her speed to keep up behind the Vanguard.

"Dita! Pull back!"

"I want to see it! He will save us, I believe in him!" Dita said with boundless optimism. 

"Dita!"

To Hibiki, all that he could see, all that he could hear was the core of the mothership as it opened.

"Just... a... little... more..." he said through gritted teeth, pushing his Vanguard to the limits. He paid no heed to the smaller enemies that had latched on to the mecha. 

"I want the power to change!"

The mothership's gaping maw glowed red.

"I won't give up!!"

Rails of red burst from the mothership and struck the Vanguard dead in the center. A tremendous explosion engulfed it, expanding and enveloped Dita's Dread within it as well.

Meia and the others stared in shock, unable to digest that the Vanguard and Dita's Dread had disappeared.

"That idiot..." Jura hissed, looking away from the explosion.

---

On the bridge, everyone stared at the explosion silently.

"Looks like the miracle didn't happen," Magno said, disappointment clouding her face.

"Boss... we have to withdraw..." BC said with eyes closed.

"Huh!?" Pyoro exclaimed, becoming bug-eyed. BC and Magno looked up at the screen in surprise.

---

From the explosion, a gigantic fist burst through and gripped the enemy's rails, crushing them with its huge fingers. As the explosion dissipated, a huge metallic, humanoid figure emerged.

"What is that?" Jura gasped.

Meia had no answer.

It was huge, several times larger than Hibiki's Vanguard. It was encased in the red energy from the rails. As it cooled off, the figure could clearly be seen.

"Whoa," Eadric whispered.

"I want one..." Arion muttered.

It was a huge mecha of blue and green. Two crystal cones of green lined down its shoulder blades, more green crystals lined the arms and legs. Its head had a jutting forehead like a horn, a long sharp lower jaw and green metallic eyes giving it a bestial look. 

"Is that... one of men's secret weapons?" Magno asked in shock.

BC was stunned as well. "A real miracle?" 

It moved forward towards the mothership, ignoring the smaller enemies that seemingly desperate to stop it. With ease the mecha brushed them aside like insects.

Reaching the mothership, it gripped the opening and forcefully pulled it open. The two green cones on its back slid up and over the shoulders like cannons. Within seconds, they glowed tremendously in green.

Then they fired.

The mothership convulsed as twin beams of emerald light burst through its aft. A series of internal explosions ruptured the hulls before finally collapsing into a huge detonation.

And the smaller enemies fell silent.

---

"I... I did it... heh..." Hibiki gasped, a tired smile on his lips as he stared blearily into the distance.

"I finally made it!" he said with conviction. He wanted to jump with joy, but then he realized there was something heavy on his lap. Plus, there was another pair of hands underneath his on the controls.

"W-w-what is going on here!?" Hibiki yelled in panic.

Dita slumped back against him, mumbling dreamily in her sleep.

"I knew you could do it... Mr. Alien..."

Hibiki sweated nervously.

"Is this... is this what I'm looking for!?"

  


* * *

[i] Inner Sphere – reference to 'Battletech'. In the UPA universe, the Inner Sphere refers to the early hundreds of worlds colonized directly by humans from Earth. Freeworld is not, since it was officially colonized by the Exodusians and the Freemen. Beyond the Inner Sphere is the Periphery (independent kingdoms, sovereign planets, bandit kings etc), and beyond that are the alien star empires.

[ii] Kilrathi – reference to Wing Commander. The Human's enemies from the game were the feral, cat-like species that walked on two legs.


	4. Part Three: Coincidence

Part Three: Coincidence

      The Magno Pirates steered clear from a certain purple-eyed, green haired Dread pilot.

      "Uh-oh, Barnette-san's on the warpath," the female pirates whispered amongst themselves.

      Indeed, Barnette Orangello stormed angrily down the hallways towards the Dread registry with an antiquated pistol in her tightly gripped fist.

      The Registry, as usual, was a scene of intense activity as the waitress-like pirates guided the pilots home after the battle against the enemy. From behind her desk, the calm figure of Gascogne Rheigau directed traffic.

      "...Status on the Dreads?" Gascogne asked as she tapped her console.

      "Jura and Meia have safely docked at the men's section. Parfet says that the, uh..." one of the Registry girls hesitated.

      "Vandread?" Gascogne suggested.

      "Yes... the Vandread... it's being brought in now. She says Dita and the Taraak man are both fine," the girl reported.

      "Good. Now lets get our Dreads back..." Gascogne paused when she noticed Barnette's arrival for the first time. "Well well, what are you doing here?" Gascogne asked her conversationally.

      Barnette folded her arms. "You know why I'm here. How could you give our Dreads to those filthy men!?"

      Gascogne shrugged. "Hey, it was the chief's orders. If you don't like it, take it up with her," she said.

      "But why give –my- Dread!?" Barnette demanded.

      "Yours was one of the ones available," Gascogne said. "Besides, it was not as if you could get out from the showers in time for the battle," she added with a grin.

      Barnette glared at the taller woman. She, like most of the assault personnel involved in the Taraak raid, was confined in a bacterial shower by Paiway fight after their raid on the men's ship. Paiway ignored their cries of anger (and later, for mercy) even when they were under attack.

      "I swear Paiway will pay for that," Barnette muttered.

      "Sure. Now if you'll excuse me, I have something else to do," Gascogne said. She clapped her hands at her gawking charges, who were eavesdropping at their conversation. Abruptly the Registry became noisy once more.

      "At least they were helpful," Gascogne reminded the Dread pilot as she went out of the Registry.

      Barnette sighed, knowing that the taller woman was right. From all accounts the two men did well in protecting the ship, allowing time for the miracle fusion between Dita's Dread and the Taraak's Vanguard to defeat the enemy. Maybe Gascogne was right, maybe they really were helpful...

      Barnette went to one of the observation windows to watch the two Dreads slowly entering the hangar. To her anger, her Dread was the more heavily damaged one.

      She spun on her feet and stomped out of the Registry, all thoughts of being civil to the men vanished as she headed towards the hangar with a snarl on her lips.

      ---

      "Whoooo!" Eadric Lee exulted as he jumped out from his battered Dread. His enthusiasm caused several of the maintenance crew to back away in fear.

      He patted the Dread affectionately, oblivious to the girls' fearful reaction. The Dread was damaged, scars of battle were visible but it was still battle-worthy, and that was important in Eadric Lee's book.

      "What a ride! I haven't had this much fun for a long time!" he said loudly. 

      Then Eadric gave the maintenance crew a grin and a thumb's up. "Hey, take care of her," he nodded at his Dread. The crew was bewildered by his nonchalance. He was about to say something when one of them gasped in horror, pointing behind him.

He turned around to see Arion's Dread limping in to land. To his consternation, the Dread was heavily damaged, leaking fumes and whatnot as it shuddered in an uneasy landing.

"Holy sheep, that's one ugly ship," Eadric said.

"It's –my- ship," a female voice snarled behind him.

Eadric turned found himself face-to-face with the barrel of a 9MM pistol pointed straight at him, held by a visibly angry Barnette Orangello.

"Nice gun," Eadric commented and raised his hands. He eyed Barnette's weapon with a raised eyebrow.

Barnette was about to say something unflattering to him when the seals on the just-landed Dread's cockpit popped open with a hiss.

"Hey Arion, get a load of her gun," Eadric said with a broad smile, expecting to see his friend leaping out from the cockpit with accustomed bravado.

When that didn't happen, Eadric got concerned.

As the cockpit fully opened, he could see Arion struggling to climb out. He failed and slumped back into the cockpit, one arm draped over the fuselage limply.

"No..." Eadric said in rising panic. Heedless of the gun pointed at him, he broke into a run towards Arion's Dread. A maintenance crew had already wheeled a ladder to the cockpit as they crawled over and under the Dread for repairs.

Eadric climbed up the ladder quickly, Barnette hot on his heels. Eadric was concerned for his friend, while Barnette was more worried about her Dread.

They saw Arion lying in the cockpit, breathing heavily. A quick survey of the interior showed several broken screens and short-circuited controls.

"My Dread!" Barnette yelled.

"Sorry... 'bout... the mess," Arion said slowly, his eyes half-lidded and blinking slowly in pain. One hand clutched his abdomen, his fingers twitching.

"You can't be serious," Eadric said, unable to believe the sight. There was no bleeding, but internal injuries were not uncommon for pilots.

"Huh," Arion merely said. Then his head lolled to a side as he groaned.

"He's... he's not dying, is he?" Barnette whispered. Not that she cared about the man, but to watch a death was uncomfortable. Not to mention that it was happening in –her- Dread.

"That's impossible!" Eadric snapped angrily as he grabbed Arion and shook him roughly.

"Leave me, please..." Arion started.

"You gotta be joking!" his friend yelled as tears threatened to spring. Even Barnette was affected by the scene.

"...it's embarrassing," Arion finished.

"Huh?" Eadric and Barnette chorused.

Arion's stomach growled loudly for a long second.

"Sorry, I haven't eaten... since I came to Taraak..." Arion said weakly. Even though he was genuinely sorry, his eyes were twinkling with laughter.

Eadric released his hold on Arion. He took a deep breath and faced the equally annoyed Barnette.

"I'm going to hit him now. Or do you want to do it?" he asked conversationally. 

"I'm not touching him," Barnette scowled. 

Eadric nodded and cracked his knuckles.

"Hey, come on..." Arion started to protest weakly.

"WAAAAA-CAAAAAAAA!!"

Arion received a karate chop straight down on the skull.

'It was worth it,' Arion thought even as his level of awareness and perception was extinguished like a karate chop straight down on the skull.

As Arion blacked out, Eadric dusted off his hands in a show of satisfaction.

"Bloody hell, still can joke at the wrong time," he muttered with disgust. Then he grinned. "Still the same ass after so many years..."

A metallic object poking hard at the small of his back stopped his grinning. Glancing warily over a shoulder, he saw Barnette glaring at him.

"Get him out of my Dread," she hissed.

Eadric sighed.

---

In the briefing room of the heavily changed pirate ship, Magno listened moodily as BC gave the "butcher's bill" of the battle.

"There are a few minor injuries among the crew from the attack, nothing serious. But like most of our systems, the medical support is currently offline," the silver-haired, tanned-skinned woman reported.

At the end of the table, Meia Gisborn listened without reaction, awaiting her turn to give her own report. With the absence of Gascogne, the three of them represented the 'senior' staff of the pirate ship.

The room (and the entire ship) was getting warmer, and the elderly captain Magno was a little annoyed to see her vice-captain and the wing commander were both seemingly unaffected by the rising heat.

"Boss?" BC enquired.

"Ah, go on," Magno said, a little irritably as she fanned herself with a traditional hand fan. 

BC nodded, oblivious to the captain's discomfort. 

"Our ship had fused with the old module and currently remains inseparable. Most of the original systems in life support, engineering and the bridge were completely swallowed up by the pexis pragma crystals. The Dread launch platform and registry section remained untouched. Fortunately, growth of those crystals and further changes to the ship have ceased for the moment," she said evenly and nodded towards Meia.

"Thank you, Buzam," the blue-haired woman said as she took her turn. Facing the captain, Meia explained the current situation.

"The Dreads of Jura, Dita and mine were transformed drastically by the pexis pragma, both internally and externally. As such, they cannot fit our launch platform. Parfet had an engineering team modify the men's module for storage. While doing so, they found that the module had been abandoned for quite some time."

"Typical men, they never take care of precious things," Magno commented.

"We have another concern," BC interjected. "It's hard to believe, but we are currently very far away from Mejale. Main navigation systems are still down, but what data we have suggests that we are in uncharted territories."

"So, we're blind, helpless and don't even know where we are," Magno summed up glumly.

BC nodded in agreement.

"And to have such mysterious technology forced on us... at least those men we capture were quite useful," Magno said. She remembered about the mysterious pool in the bridge. It ejected Bart out after the battle and the ship remained immobile thereafter. 

"Speaking of which," Meia cut in, "what do we do about the men?"

"Perhaps they might know what happened to the pexis-pragma," BC suggested. She then told Magno and Meia how the Exodusians were distracted by the blue light, with Eadric blurting about a 'reflex engine'.

"Bring them here, we'll interrogate them," Magno nodded.

Meia frowned. "We should just get rid of all of them. They might turn this technology against us."

"Then it's important for us to know whatever they know. They are just small potatoes at the moment," Magno said dismissively, "and we have bigger problems to deal with. What did you find out about the enemy?"

"We're facing a shortage in my team; everyone qualified is busy restoring the ship's systems. I had some volunteers investigate the enemy remains now," Meia answered.

"Volunteers?"

---

"It's incredible! Wow wow wow!" Dita bubbled with exhilaration. 

In the cramped seat behind her, Gascogne sighed and questioned to herself why she volunteered for this duty. 

They were both in Dita's pexis-modified Dread as it flew into the debris that remained from the battle. 

Gascogne knew the answer to her own question; she wanted to see their new enemies herself. Plus, a little spacewalk was a refreshing change from the hustle and bustle of the Registry.

The battlefield was littered with twisted metal and strangely organic-looking components. Some of the smaller enemies that had fought so ferociously in the battle now floated silently as Dita's Dread flew past.

Gascogne mulled dispassionately at the remains while Dita punctuated her thrill by snapping photos every now and then.

'This girl... those things were trying to kill her earlier and now she's behaving as if she's in a sight-seeing tour,' Gascogne thought to herself without malice, a grin on her lips.

"There! Did you see that, Miss Gasco?" Dita exclaimed excitedly.

Gascogne's grin disappeared. 

"My name is GascoGNE!"

---

Back on the bridge of the pirate ship, the bridge controllers were visibly hot and fanning themselves to cool off.

"Ezra, are you alright?" one of them asked worriedly.

Ezra was part of the trio led by BC that had captured Arion and Eadric. Her face was lined with sweat, but she smiled to relieve their concern.

"I'm fine. Thank you, Amarone," she said.

"Well I'm not. Just what is wrong with this ship?" Amarone sighed as she fanned herself harder. She glanced around the bridge, everything had changed. The pexis pragma had pushed the entire bridge section so that it now hung over the garden. The navigation pool that Bart had stumbled into hummed languidly in the forward center of the bridge.

"It's getting so warm, even Celtic is not wearing her costume," Amarone noted. Incongruously, a full-sized, teddy-bear costume with a 'Reserved' sign around its neck was seated at one of the bridge stations. The occupant was presumably away to escape the heat.

Amarone turned to look at the last bridge bunny. "Hey Belvedere, check the engineers," she suggested.

Belvedere nodded and tapped into the internal communication. The face of one of the bespectacled engineers appeared on the screen.

"Hey, it's getting too hot in here," Belvedere whined the moment the engineer appeared.

"It is four degrees hotter over here!" the engineer retorted and gestured at the pexis pragma in the background. The huge ball of glowing white pulsed irregularly, humming with energy.

"Fix the air-conditioning first please," Belvedere pleaded as she ended the call.

The engineer went to the observation window and contacted Parfet Balbair, who was suited up and within walking distance of the pulsing pexis.

"Parfet, how does it look over there?"

Parfet was examining the systems overlooking the pexis.

"Everything's so old, it must be a prototype of some sort," she said.

The engineer sighed. At the other side of the room, two of her colleagues wrestled to hold down Pyoro the Navigation droid, trying to plug cables into the machine.

The droid beeped and buzzed angrily. "Don't touch me! Hey!" it protested.

"Come on, cooperate a little! We need all the data and help we can get!" the engineer said.

---

"Good God but you're heavy," Eadric grumbled as he struggled to carry the unconscious Arion Wong on his back. A few steps behind him was Barnette, still pointing the gun, still having a scowl on her face. 

"Turn left at the next junction," Barnette commanded.

Eadric grunted. He suddenly stopped in his tracks, causing Barnette to immediately backpedal two steps and gripped her pistol with both hands.

"What are you doing? Keep moving!" she demanded.

"Wait, this isn't working," Eadric complained. He stood up straight and released Arion from his back.

Arion managed a dreamy "Huh?" before he slid off Eadric's back, dropped to the floor and bounced his head on the cold, hard surface; knocking himself out again.

As Barnette watched incredulously, Eadric grabbed one of Arion's legs and pulled, dragging the insentient man as he walked.

"Turn left eh?" Eadric asked nonchalantly. Without waiting for her confirmation, Eadric took the left turn and continued walking, dragging his friend by the leg as he did so.

Barnette stood there open-mouthed even as Eadric took the turn and disappeared from her view. With a start, she shook her head and ran to chase the two Exodusians.

"Hey! What are you doing? You can't drag him around like that!" she yelled as she caught up.

"But he's heavy!" Eadric whined.

"He's your friend, isn't he?" the green-haired woman asked in disbelief.

"Well, yeah. But technically, he's still a wanted criminal. I still hafta turn him in for a proper trial," Eadric shrugged.

"You two are the strangest people I've ever met," Barnette said with incredulity.

Eadric grinned, still walking, still dragging. "Yeap, we hear that often. Where do I turn next?" he asked as they approached yet another crossroads in the hallways.

"Ah, good, I've found you," BC interrupted as she came up.

"Hi," Eadric greeted the tanned, exotic-looking woman.

BC took a moment to look at him, taking in the fact that he was literally pulling Arion's leg. She gave Barnette an arched eyebrow.

"What's happening here?" she asked.

"I'm escorting them back to their cell. He, uh, fainted," Barnette hastily explained.

"I'll take charge of them now," BC said. "You, bring your friend and follow me," she then commanded to Eadric.

Barnette stood there, her eyes blinking. "Vice-commander! Are you sure it's safe without an escort?" she asked. Despite Barnette's belief in the silver-haired woman's skills, she was still unarmed.

"There is no where for them to run," BC replied as she turned to walk away. Then she stopped and gave Barnette a backward glance. "Oh, you might want to get back to your quarters. I heard the pexis crystals stopped just where your room was," she added.

"Oh no!" Barnette cried in alarm and ran in the opposite direction.

BC waited for her to get away from earshot before saying to Eadric, "The captain wishes to see you."

"I'm getting hungry myself. Got anything to eat?" Eadric asked.

"Maybe, if you cooperate," BC answered noncommittally.

Eadric shrugged. "Yeah, why not? We already helped to save your ship."

---

Inside the remains of the destroyed enemy ship, Gascogne and Dita searched for clues; clad in their multi-purpose suits that were also used in the raid against Taraak.

As they drifted further into the gutted remains, Gasogne's eyes drank in the sheer strangeness of the sight. Inside, as was the exterior, the ship seemed to have been made from organic-like materials. But components of circuitry and metal could still be seen embedded within.

Gascogne wondered if there was anything sentient that had actually controlled the enemy ship. There was no evidence of life, as if everything was fully automated.

"Heh, very spooky," Gascogne commented to herself. A sudden flash of light from the side startled her. As quickly as she could, she turned to face the source, ready to bring her suit's in-built weapons to bear.

And discovered it was unnecessary, for the flash came from Dita's camera as she happily snapped photos of the interior.

"This is so exciting!" Dita exclaimed.

"Hey!" Gascogne said exasperatedly, "we're looking for the ship's main system for a data download, this isn't a field trip."

"But, Miss Gasco... what does it look like?" Dita asked naively.

"I don't know, but hopefully there's something that can fit this," Gascogne spun a rectangular data retriever in the weightless vacuum.

"Oh, something like that?" Dita pointed towards a console. It was floating by itself, pried loose from the walls but still connected to the ship via exposed wires and circuits. There were still several lights blinking softly on it.

"Sometimes, you have the best of luck," Gascogne marveled as she snatched the data retriever and headed to the battered console.

---

"Boss, I've brought them here," BC reported as she entered the briefing room. Magno nodded in acknowledgement as Eadric Lee walked in. 

Magno noticed that Meia's green-tinged eyes widened with mild surprise. The elderly captain then glanced down to see Arion being dragged into the room by the leg.

"Wake him up," she said genially, unfazed by the scene.

"Sure," Eadric nonchalantly shrugged. He gave Arion a non-too-gentle kick in the chest, immediately causing his friend to sit up and cough.

"I'm awake, I'm awake," Arion grumbled as he struggled to stand. Eadric helped him to a seat and sat beside him.

"Well now, wassup?" Eadric asked, opening the dialogue.

"We were just wondering what to do with you two," Magno began casually.

"Oh, that's nice," Eadric replied.

"Gruh," Arion groaned as he laid his head on the table. "How about feeding us for a change?" he complained.

Magno smirked. "Actually, we might."

"Ah?"

      "I'm curious. What did you mean when you said 'reflex engine'?" BC asked.

      "Who said it?"

      "You did. Back on the shuttle."

      "Nah, I didn't, just forget about it," Eadric waved dismissively.

Meia was not amused. She made a show of touching the ring on the finger on her right hand. The Exodusian recognized it as the same type of 'weapon' the women had threatened to use on them before.

"Oh that," Eadric said as if suddenly remembering. "Why you wanna know?"

"It might have a clue on how we got here," BC said.

"Where's 'here' actually?"

Nobody answered.

"You mean you don't know where we are?" Arion asked incredulously.

"Our navigation systems don't recognize the stars," BC admitted.

"What? Just how backward are you people!?" Arion demanded as he started to rise.

Eadric held up an arm across Arion to prevent him. Arion saw that Meia had aimed her ring at him. Snarling, Arion sat back down angrily.

"Hey man, relax," Eadric said soothingly. "Remember, Taraak and Mejale are at the Periphery... they were abandoned by the UPG."

"Incorrect," BC said sharply, "Taraak and Mejale were offered to join the UPG and we declined."

"Can't blame 'em," Arion muttered.

"Huh, and now we see the result of –that-," Eadric countered.

"Enough with the history," Magno interrupted. "You two did help us, but that was because our pilots were unavailable. Suffice to say, you two are nothing but excess baggage now."

"Suppose if I can help determine our location? Will you then give us a ride back to Taraak?" Eadric suggested, causing Arion to give him a look.

"We'll consider it," Magno said.

"Alright, good enough. You have a console to the navigation system that I can use?" Eadric asked.

Magno motioned at BC who nodded. She went to one of the walls and pressed several buttons to reveal a large, flat-screen and a control panel. She tapped several keys on the panel and the screen came to life.

A few flickers later, a view of the outside space came on. An overlay of grids and computed constellations appeared in quick succession, trying to match the stars in view, beeping with error with every try.

"As you can see, our navigational charts are unable to match any of the constellations to those in our database," BC explained.

Eadric nodded. He stood up and went to the console. Raising his wrist slowly to show his intent, he twisted the top off his wristwatch and pulled out a thin cable. He then plugged the cable into the console's port.

"What are you doing?" Meia demanded warily.

"Allowing my assistant to interface with the star charts," Eadric replied calmly.

"I see you got more gadgets again," Arion grumbled enviously.

"Benefits of being the commander-in-chief," his friend grinned, annoying him further.

Seconds later, to the Mejale pirates' surprise, a childish girl's face appeared on the screen. She had emotionless brown eyes, her green hair in a bowl cut with curls twirling down the sides of her face. Oversized (compared to her face) red spheres were behind each ear, placed like head ornaments.

"Good day, Commander Eadric," the girl said in a monotone. Her image flickered once in a while, like a bad signal in a television program.

"Oh, it's Tenho[i]," Arion said in surprise, recognizing the face. 

"Mr. Arion Wong, nice to see you again," the digital girl greeted with considerably more emotion than how she greeted Eadric.

"Nice to see you too, Tenho," Arion replied with a smile.

"Who is that?" Magno managed to ask. BC and Meia stared at the digital girl in the screen.

"This is Tenho, my digital assistant," Eadric proclaimed proudly. He turned to face the screen.

"Hiya Tenho. How are ya?"

The girl blinked several times, taking her time to answer as her program ran a diagnostic. 

"My systems are nominal, commander."

"How's the accommodations?"

She blinked once more, and then the distortions disappeared completely, giving the viewers a very clear and sharp view of her. To the Mejale pirates, Tenho became extremely lifelike. It was as if Eadric was talking to a real person.

"Host system is... unidentified. I assume that this is not the Little Dragon Lady," Tenho said.

"Yup. Can you find the star charts and augment their data?"

"Processing... Nominal systems detected; compatibility at 47 percent... Yes, I can," Tenho replied and waited.

After several seconds, Eadric frowned when Tenho stared back at him impassively.

"Er, what are you waiting for?"

"You asked if I can, and I answered in the affirmative. You did not request me to actually do it," Tenho replied.

"Hah! That's a good one," Arion chuckled. Even the Mejale pirates were grinning.

Eadric sighed. "Sorry Tenho... Can you please augment their data now?"

"No."

"Huh?" Eadric's jaw dropped.

Tenho actually showed displeasure, displaying very real emotions.

"I was in that wristwatch for the past five days, seven hours and sixteen minutes. In that time, you have not called on me once, leaving me in that cramped data storage," Tenho said, her monotone voice actually conveying a sense of sulkiness. 

"Haha, this is rich!" Arion laughed loudly as Eadric stared at her in shock.

"The fact that this is not the Little Dragon Lady and that Mr. Arion is with you here... I assume this is the Arcadia?" Tenho asked, referring to Arion's infamous pirate ship.

"Not quite, though this –is- a pirate ship," Arion said, looking pointedly at Magno, BC and Meia.

"I see. Commander Eadric, you were captured by him? How disappointing," Tenho said reproachfully.

"As if he can capture –me-," Eadric scoffed.

"Sorry Tenho, we're –both- captured by -them-," Arion grimaced and jerked a thumb at the women.

"You, a pirate, captured by pirates?" Tenho asked dubiously. This time, Eadric laughed at Arion's expense.

"Gah," Arion said in disgust. He took a deep breath to calm himself. 

"Tenho, we're in a... special situation... please help us," he finally said.

"I understand," Tenho nodded, "I will merge my database with the existing data available and display it for you. Please wait a moment."

Her face disappeared and a spinning logo bearing the initials G.U.M.[ii] spun around in its place on the screen.

Arion noticed that the pirate women were still showing some degree of surprise.

"What's wrong with you people? Haven't you seen an AI before?" he demanded.

"We... we haven't seen anything as sophisticated as that," BC replied.

"Huh. Well, you ain't seen nothing yet," Arion said and winked knowingly at Eadric. "I can't wait to see their faces when they meet an Autobot."

Eadric chuckled. The women were about to ask about what he meant when Tenho's face reappeared.

"Data augmentation successful," she reported.

"Good, display our location please," Eadric said.

A blueprint of the pirate ship appeared. The screen focused onto the top half of the fused vessel, then zooming in further to highlight a room just behind the bridge.

"Very funny," Eadric said sarcastically, knowing that Tenho was displaying their current briefing room within the ship.

"I like her sense of humor," Magno commented.

"Don't encourage her," Eadric admonished. "Tenho, relate our current position to the star system of Taraak and Mejale."

"Afirmative."

The blueprint disappeared and was replaced by a map of the known galaxy. 

To the Mejale pirates, the sight was baffling. To the Exodusians, they wonder how many stars in the galaxy that they had already visited in their long adventures.

'We have interesting lives,' Arion reflected.

Then the map zoomed into the bottom left corner several times, at the very edge of known human colonization. Several zooms later, a symbol labeled 'Taraak and Mejale' could be seen.

From there, a red line emerged and grew longer, forcing the map to zoom out again several times. The red line went so long that it actually went off the map of the known galaxy.

"What the..." Arion started.

Eventually, the line stopped in an empty space outside of the galaxy, surrounded by a smattering of rogue stars and space anomalies.

"We're actually at the end of the galaxy," Eadric exclaimed.

"Gah. At the exit of the Milky War, this must be a record," Arion said and shook his head in wonder.

"Just how far away we are from Mejale?" Meia asked. She, like the other women, was unfazed by their reactions.

"We are approximately 270 days away from Mejale and Taraak," Tenho replied.

"What?" Meia gasped.

"270 days..." BC repeated.

"Blown all the way here, what did we do to deserve this?" Magno complained.

Arion frowned at their reaction. "What's the problem? 270 days isn't a problem. We'll get there quickly with a warp."

"Ah, Arion..." Eadric began.

"Warp?" Meia asked.

"Oh no," Arion said, horrified. "They are a pre-warp civilization!?" he yelled at Eadric, who nodded miserably.

"Yeah. They don't even have hyper-drive or jump-gate technology... That's one of the reasons I was invited to Taraak in the first place. I'm to offer Taraak and Mejale another chance to rejoin the UPG..." Eadric said as he stared at the map.

"Great, just great... 270 days of traveling at sub-light speeds," Arion grumbled and threw his hands up in disgust.

He eyed the trio of women who weren't really pleased at the situation themselves.

"This is going to be one hell of a roadtrip," Arion muttered.

  


* * *

[i] Tenho – this is of course, a real Vandread character that only appeared in the manga. In it, Tenho is a real flesh & blood girl who can communicate with machines directly.

[ii] G.U.M. – General Utility Mechanics corporation.


	5. Part Four: Maybe

Part Four: Maybe

"So, what's next on the agenda?" Eadric asked brightly.

"First, you will remove your... digital assistant from our systems," BC said, looking at Tenho's face on the screen. The child-like AI blinked and pointed at herself innocently.

Magno nodded in approval of BC's suggestion. There was no telling what the advanced technology could do against them.

"Alright, you heard her. Get back into the watch," Eadric shrugged. Tenho sighed, yet another very human-like display that startled the Mejale women.

"Phenomenal cosmic power... in itty bitty little spacei," Tenho muttered as she winked out of existence from the screen. A second later the thin cable connecting Eadric's wristwatch to the screen retracted back into position and disappeared.

"Urgh," Arion grumbled, still digesting the fact that he was stuck on-board an all-women pirate ship for the next 270 days. Perhaps it was an enviable position for some other men, but for Arion whose life choices were decided by 'freedom of mobility' and 'comfortable-being-away-from-people', it was depressing.

"Oh come on, it could be worse," Eadric said genially.

"Shut up. I hate that phrase. It –always- gets worse. And why is it so warm here? Someone fix the temperature."

"You know, you've grown a lot bitterer since the last time we met," Eadric remarked.

"Try being in my shoes," Arion growled, glaring at him.

"I hate to stop your lovers' quarrel, but can we get back to the matter at hand?" Magno interrupted.

"Be quiet, you old-"

Eadric hastily clapped a hand over Arion's mouth.

"What can we do for you, madam?" Eadric said, a strained smile on his lips as he struggled to maintain his hold on Arion.

"The technology. Do you know what has happened to our ship?" the elderly woman asked.

"Er, why are you asking us?"

"There is the matter with the blue light and the pexis pragma... the reflex engine you spoke of," BC stated, almost impatiently.

Eadric gave Arion a meaningful look. Glaring back at him with Eadric's hand still on his mouth, Arion shrugged.

Lowering his hand, Eadric shrugged as well, as if the duo had came to a conclusion without speaking.

"The reflex engine is an alien technology that we still don't really understand about. We know it works, but we don't know how or why. Suffice to say, someone left their wheels, we found them and we used it ever since," Eadric explained.

"I suspect you're not telling us everything," Magno said, narrowing her eyes at the Exodusians.

"Of course," Arion replied before Eadric could say anything. Immediately Meia's ring was again pointed at him.

"Oh please. Even if we explained everything to you, what assurance do you have that we're not lying anyway?" Arion said, not batting an eyelid at Meia's glowing ring.

"Captain, I'm not sure if we should suffer their rudeness any longer," Meia said, her eyes glaring at Arion. It was not of hate; rather it was full of distrust, plus a shade of irritation.

"Well then, take your best shot," Arion challenged, spreading his arms nonchalantly.

Meia's eyes narrowed.

"Come on, there's no need for violence..." Eadric started to say.

"There's always a need for violence," Arion and Meia said in stereo. Surprised and annoyed, they glared at each other hostilely.

"Well, enough of this nonsense," Magno interrupted with a hit of her walking stick on the floor. "We still have a lot of things to do than to prattle all day."

"Look, I know you're curious about what happened, but frankly, we're not sure of anything at the moment. Why don't you let us help out? All we want is a ride back to Taraak," Eadric offered.

"What exactly can you do?" BC asked.

"I am a certified systems engineer, among other things," Eadric stated, "while my friend here is... well..."

"I'm complicated," Arion deadpanned.

"-Versatile-," Eadric suggested instead.

"A systems engineer... I suppose that would be useful in our current situation," BC noted.

"There, you see? An understanding already," Eadric gestured hopefully.

"That remains to be seen," Meia said coolly, "your friend might not prove to be as useful."

"Why do you –keep- insisting on getting rid of him?" Eadric asked, almost exasperatedly.

"Because we can't trust him," Meia replied evenly.

"What the heck? Look, I'll tell you right now, he is my friend for many, many years. If you get rid of him and expect me to cooperate with you, you must be nuts. And if I –do- cooperate after you getting rid of him, can you really trust –me- after betraying my friend?" Eadric ranted.

Even Arion was a little taken aback by the sudden outburst.

"Enough," Magno interrupted. Everyone in the room turned to face the captain of the Mejale pirates.

"It is obvious that you two need to work together or not work at all. Fine, I will accept that," she said.

"What about the Taraak men?" Eadric interjected.

"They are of none of your concern. As you said, you have nothing to do with either Taraak or Mejale," BC replied.

"I just want them to get the same deal as we are getting," Eadric said.

"Wait, what –are- you people doing with them at the moment anyway?" Arion asked.

"Disinfection," BC answered. She pressed a button and the screen switched to show the three Taraak men being hosed down by women wearing hazard suits. Two of the men were trying to avoid the blast of chemically-laced water frantically, while the third man just stood there silently.

"Geez, talk about overkill," Arion whispered so that only his friend could hear, "reminds me of those Nazi war camp documentaries."

"There will be no executions on a ship I am boarding," Eadric said sternly. Arion knew the tone in his voice, he meant it. Eadric Lee might come across as an amicable, none-too-serious person, but years of soldiering and adventuring made him stick to his principles when needed.

"You are in no position to negotiate," Meia pointed out.

"Yeah, but can you really work this ship out in this strange part of space by yourselves? Ya need all the help ya can get, and that includes Tenho here too," Eadric countered.

"Later. I will think about it," Magno said.

Eadric remained unconvinced. "That's not enough. We need-"

"What you need is the food you wanted," Magno interrupted. She gestured at Meia. "Take them back to their cells and get them something to eat later."

"Food! Food!" Arion and Eadric chanted, all seriousness suddenly dispelled. To Meia, it was bewildering.

"Captain-!" the wing commander of the pirates started to protest, partly because she didn't want to do it and partly because their behavior simply irritates her.

"Meia," the older woman said simply.

"...Aye captain."

The moment they were alone in briefing room, BC and Magno shared a look. "What he said is true," BC conceded, "we at least need to depend on their knowledge until we gain full control of the ship's systems."

"Well, it is in our mutual interests. We will use them until they are no longer necessary," the elderly captain said without malice. Then her eyes hardened.

"Get that navigator boy. No sense in wasting any more time here. We're leaving after Gascogne returns."

---

Arion and Eadric found themselves deposited into a cell just next to the Taraak men. Their arrival interrupted Bart's dramatic retelling of his heroic exploits, trying to coerce Hibiki and Duero into escaping.

Of course, the moment Meia showed up, Bart immediately closed his mouth and smiled a nervous smile.

"Hey, where's the food?" Arion asked as Meia locked the cell and began to walk away.

"The captain said to give you food 'later'. She did not specify when," Meia reminded him and left, leaving Arion and Eadric open-mouthed.

"Boy, do I feel sheepish," Arion mumbled. His stomach growled in sympathy.

"Cheaters," Eadric agreed.

"Is it me or is it getting warmer?" Arion asked as he looked around.

"Hey comrades!" Bart Garsus called out from the opposite cell. Arion and Eadric turned to look at the blond-haired man, recognizing him as the dancing victim during the disinfection scene shown to them earlier.

But instead of paying attention to the heir of Garsus Industries, it was Hibiki who they noticed.

"Hey kid, looks like you did good out there," Arion called out.

"Thanks," Hibiki mumbled.

"Cheer up," Eadric said, sensing that the youngest of them there was feeling quite down.

"You are Commander Eadric from the Robotech Defense Force," Duero suddenly said. It was not accusatory; the tall man was stating a fact. Eadric turned to look at him, noting the outlandish way Duero's hair was combed. Almost the entire side of his face was covered by his jet-black hair.

"Yeah, I am. I'm surprised you know me. I haven't even been introduced yet when all this happened."

"I read the program book for the launching ceremony," Duero replied. Eadric wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

"-Commander- Eadric?" Bart and Hibiki mouthed in unison.

"Commander Eadric, what a pleasure to see an esteemed presence like you here! I'm Bart Garsus, heir of Garsus Industries!" Bart immediately straightened up, rubbed his hands together and put on his most friendly smile, eager to secure any advantage for himself no matter how long the shot is.

"Wow, you even get fans in prison," Arion deadpanned.

The image of inmates in prisons throughout the galaxy thinking about him made Eadric shiver. He shot a scowl at Bart, who immediately clammed up.

"He is just worried. Talking helps him to relieve his stress," Duero said as a way of apology.

"And you are?"

"Duero McFile, cadet graduate of the Taraak Military."

Eadric nodded at his official introduction. "I'm Commander Eadric Lee of the RDF, and this is... uh, Arion Wong."

"A commander?" Hibiki repeated to himself dubiously. "Hey, you're a commander? Get us out of here!" he shouted.

"Ah, it's not so bad. We're captured by a bunch of females after all. You're a guy, so just imagine the possibilities," Eadric suggested.

"Yeah, that's the point! I don't want my liver to be eaten!" Hibiki hollered desperately.

"What?" Arion exclaimed.

"It's just a myth. I can't see the women actually cutting them up for body parts," Eadric replied.

"What is this war all about?" Arion asked Eadric, who shrugged negatively. His indifference made Arion's mood dip even further.

"What do you mean, you don't know!? You set-up the bloody meeting in the first place!" Arion yelled.

"Hey man, it was the only free time I have. My schedule is packed ya know."

"The least you could do is research the damn place!"

"I did," Eadric replied with a frown, "but Taraak and Mejale are so out of the place, we didn't have much info about them in the first place."

"Gee, and I guess you don't know we're gonna get caught up in this little war too," Arion sarcastically said.

"Oh shut up. I'm more interested in what happened out there to him right now," Eadric said, pointing a finger at Hibiki.

"Hm?" the boy asked, pointing at himself.

"Yeah, what the hell did you do? We saw your... er, mecha merging with one of the female fighters," Arion said.

"It's called a Vanguard," Eadric muttered.

"Whatever. I know I saw a Taraak Vanguard and a Mejale Dread in a transformation sequence. I thought you guys were at war," Arion said, directing the last comment to the Taraak men.

"It's a state of hostility," Duero clarified.

"Sounds like staring contest," Eadric said.

"Look, I don't know what happened either! But shouldn't we work together to get outta here now!?" Hibiki yelled.

"Hey, why don't you relax a little?" Bart said in a pacifying tone, "Now that there are five of us, instead of escaping, we can come up with a plan to take over the ship!"

Arion and Eadric took one good look at the Taraak men and then at each other before bursting out in obviously fake, sarcastic laughter.

"Haha, take over the ship!"

"Ohohoho, that's a good one!"

Bart couldn't help but feel extremely small when seeing the two men laughing mockingly. On second thoughts, Bart found his declaration to take over the ship swarmed with heavily armed females was indeed a little ludicrous.

"It's just an idea..." he mumbled, twiddling his fingers.

On the other hand, the heckling from the strangers only served to make Hibiki even angrier.

"Why don't you two shut up! At least he's trying to think of a plan! I know, you two must have defected to the evil women, haven't you?!"

"'Defected'? Defected from where? We're not even from Taraak," Arion chuckled.

"You're women?!" Hibiki gasped in aghast.

"NO!" Eadric and Arion exclaimed.

"No, Commander Eadric is from the United Planets Government," Duero explained.

"Where's that?" Bart asked.

"It is a federation of human civilizations in our part of the galaxy," Duero answered, recalling the facts that he had read from the program book.

"Surely you guys musta heard of it before. Several years ago our envoys came trying to make peace between Taraak and Mejale," Eadric said.

The three Taraak men gave him doubtful looks, causing Eadric to sigh and grumble about government conspiracies and X-Files.

"Well, in any case, your governments took our aid, but never took on our offer the chance to join the UPG. I was on Taraak to offer it again, but you know what happened."

"Just who are you people anyway?" Arion suddenly asked.

"I'm Bart Garsus-" the blond-haired man said, happy to interject himself into the conversation.

"No, I meant what is the history of Taraak?" Arion interrupted.

"Well, our brave forefathers colonized Taraak about a hundred years ago. Soon after that, we were attacked by the Mejale women and we were at war ever since," Bart said.

"A very young colony," Eadric muttered to Arion, who nodded in agreement. Duero noted the exchange with interest.

"But what about before that? Where did your people come from?" Arion continued.

The three Taraak shared a confused look.

"We don't know," Bart finally said.

"We are actually the third generation of Taraak. Most of pre-Taraak history is not really important to us," Duero continued.

"Hm. 'A fresh start, a brave new world' eh?" Arion mumbled.

"Why are you so afraid of the women?" Eadric asked, directly looking at Hibiki.

"Well, aren't you?" Hibiki said defensively. Arion instantly had a déjà vu feeling, recalling the embarrassment at their first talks with the Zentraedi during the Sentinel Crusadeii.

"No. On our home planet, males and females live together freely," Eadric explained.

The look of disbelief and horror could be seen on the faces of Hibiki and Bart. Duero on the other hand, had a thoughtful and curious pose.

"Together? How!? What do they do!?" Hibiki asked.

Arion's sense of déjà vu increased. The line of questioning was almost exactly the same as the one posed by the Zentraedi emissaries so long ago.

"Well... stuff. Y'know, living together... working... playing... having social-lives and so on..." Eadric replied vaguely, also remembering the Zentraedi incident.

"But what purpose does that serve?" Duero asked.

"Damnit, don't ask anymore. Heck, you'll probably understand the moment you kiss one," Eadric grumbled.

"'Kiss'"? Duero repeated and frowned. "Can you two demonstrate?"

"HELL NO!"

That was what the Zentraedi emissaries had demanded too.

BC's arrival spelled the end of the conversation and thus saving Arion and Eadric from further awkwardness.

"You are all pretty lively for prisoners," she noted, her eyes assessing the both sets of captives. Bart tried not to jump when her eyes rested on him.

"You, come out. Our captain wishes to talk to you."

"M-me? H-ah, I'd be more than willing to assist in any way possible, as long as it doesn't involve torture!" Bart squeaked.

"Hey, what about our food?" Arion called out.

"Later," BC said and quickly marched Bart away.

---

Back at the wreckage of the alien ship...

"Well, that takes of that," Gascogne said in satisfaction as her data retriever beeped in green to show that it had done its job.

A short distance away, she could see flashes from Dita's camera. The red-haired woman was excitedly snapping photographs of the ruined structure, even though she had no idea what they were.

'She might be even taking pics of their lavatory,' Gascogne smirked.

Gascogne turned slowly, so that her suited body won't spin out of control due to momentum in the gravity-less environment. The airboss of the female pirates slowly took in the cavernous view, trying to imagine how the alien ship looked like when it was intact.

A beep from her communicator interrupted the process.

"Gascogne, how is it going there?"

The heavily muscled woman grinned at Magno's image in the communicator's screen.

"Pretty much done, but with the amount of data I'm not sure if we got anything useful. A lot of it was encrypted in a strange script. It may take a while for us to decode it."

"Hm. Maybe our new-found 'friends' can help after all..." Magno said thoughtfully.

"We also found some of their four-armed fighter craft... they are intact but inactive."

"If there's nothing else, head back here as soon as you can," Magno replied. She resisted the temptation of bringing aboard some of the enemy remains; there was no telling what could happen.

"Roger," Gascogne nodded as the communication ended.

"Dita, let's get back now."

The younger woman was visibly dismayed. "W-what? But there's so much left to see!" Dita whined.

"We're on a job, not a tour!" Gascogne said. She was about to continue her rebuke when she saw something moving from the corner of her eye.

"What the-!"

---

Back on the bridge of the pirate's ship, Bart Garsus tried his best not to look directly at Magno's face.

"Hello, er, heh heh... You wanted to see me, captain?" Bart asked. Surrounded by women on the bridge, Bart tried to disguise his nervousness. To further enforce his fear, BC had seen it fit to shackle his hands with metal chains like a Taraak prisoner on death row.

"That," Magno said simply and pointed at behind him. Glancing about, Bart could see the blue plasma pool that he had fell into earlier.

"Er, yes?"

"How did you operate that thing?" Magno questioned, thumping the floor with her walking stick for effect.

Bart felt his knees wobbling, but he quickly analyzed the situation. 'We haven't moved since I left the pool, and since she's asking me, I bet they've no idea on how to use it. Hmm, this could be an opportunity... I don't really understand it either, but they don't know –that-.'

He nodded and smiled, satisfied at his conclusion.

"Well, I'd like to help but I guess I'm just a little... tied up at the moment," Bart said, rattling the chains.

Magno gave BC a nod, and the sub-commander of the female pirates pressed a button on a remote. The electronic locks on Bart's hands opened and the chains fell onto the floor.

Bart breathed a sigh of relief as he rubbed his wrists and walked towards the pool.

'So far so good... right... I can't just teach them something I don't know... guess all I can do now is to make them depend on me.'

He stopped a few steps away from the pool and turned to face Magno and BC again.

"Now you listen to me. This entire ship is man's technology, so it's obvious you females can't use it to its maximum potential," he began. Wrapped in his own presentation, he did not notice the plasma pool beginning to hum.

"Fortunately for –you-, I am a fully trained pilot. Suffice to say, you will need me to-wuaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!"

Unfortunately for Bart, the pool seemingly had enough of his talking and lashed out. Tendrils of blue energy burst from the pool, grabbed him and simply pulled him into the pool.

"...And there he goes again. Just how does this system work?" Magno complained.

Inside the pool, it was all bluish-green. Surrounded by a force that felt like water, Bart's first instincts was to hold his breath and try to swim upwards.

Outside, the entire ship reacted to his violent movements. The ship hummed with power as energy flowed into the engines and began to move. A second later the engines fired and the ship turned to leave the area.

The sudden movement caught everyone by surprise. In the cell room, Hibiki had a bump and fell unconscious. Duero immediately went over to check on him as Arion and Eadric looked on with concern.

On the living quarters' deck, Barnette and Jura were stopped in their packing to save their belongings from the invading crystals in their room. They knocked heads and fell over unconscious.

At the medical sickbay, Paiway and the small medical staff frantically secured their patients to prevent them from falling over and causing more injuries.

Down at the hangar and flight deck, Parfet did the same, only to the pirates' Dread attack craft. Most of them were still stuck in place by the crystals, but some like Hibiki's Vanguard were securely clamped down. The spectacled Chief Engineer did not spare attention to Pyoro, who lay unattended even as the stricken Navigation droid moaned of being sick.

Back on the bridge, the bridge bunnies reported excitedly as their screens and monitors began to activate without their prompting.

"What's going on?" Magno demanded.

"I don't know; the entire system just went online!" Belvedere replied.

From her station, Amarone became more animated. "Captain, the ship's navigation controls won't respond! I'm projecting our course now!"

Nobody noticed as Ezra began to sweat and breathe more heavily.

Back in the pool, view panels and screens filled with schematics and reports suddenly appeared before Bart's very eyes. Their sudden appearance shocked him, causing his mouth to gape. After a moment, he realized that he could breathe normally. Then he looked down and noticed that he was naked from head to toe again.

"Oh, that's right... this happened before," he muttered to himself sheepishly. The sensation was a little different, the pool felt warmer, much warmer. The plasma surrounding him was actually beginning to feel a little uncomfortable on his skin.

Before he had a chance to get acquainted with his surroundings, another view screen popped up, this time showing Magno's irate face.

"What in the blazes did you do?!"

"Who? Me? What?" Bart chanted nervously, looking left and right. As if in response, more windows opened, showing the external view. He could see that the ship was moving.

"We don't have control of the ship!" Amarone said in panic.

BC immediately remembered the two women not onboard the ship.

"Drop markers quickly!" she ordered. The silver-haired woman then gave Magno a grim look.

They both knew if things didn't improve quickly, they might have doomed Gascogne and Dita.

And to compound the problem, Ezra suddenly just collapsed onto her control panel. BC immediately rushed over to shoulder the unconscious Ezra.

"I'll take her to the sickbay," she said.

"Get that Taraak doctor to help, looks like we're getting more casualties if this keeps up," Magno said grimly.

---

Back at the wreckage, Gascogne put on a brave smile. She was trapped by some of the debris, pinning her down onto the hulk of the destroyed ship. The airboss of the Mejale pirates could see Dita's effort of cutting the metal with a handheld laser was futile.

"It's no use!" Dita cried, shutting off the laser. The metal was barely scratched.

"Well, do I feel sheepish," Gascogne remarked, unknowingly mimicking Arion's comment. She had tried to struggle free when the metal suddenly came at her. Though there was no injury or damage to her spacesuit, there was little cheer.

"Miss Gasco, the ship's leaving!" Dita said in distress.

Suppressing a "Huh!?", the square-jawed woman squinted off the general direction of their home ship. It wasn't there, and she could detect faint light trails off the distance.

"It must be an emergency," Gascogne said casually, trying to reassure Dita with her calm voice. Her tone stopped Dita from tearing up, even when she couldn't establish contact with the ship.

"What do we do now, Miss Gasco?" Dita sniffed.

"The name's GascoNGE," she replied, giving Dita a slight thwack upside the head with her free hand. Gascogne then sighed as the red-haired woman "Eek!"-ed, trying to regain her balance.

"I'm beginning to hate away missions," Gascogne muttered.

"I can get some more tools from the Dread!" Dita suddenly said.

"Don't waste anymore time. Take this and return to the ship," Gascogne said and handed the data retriever to the younger woman.

"I... I can't just leave you here to die!" Dita said, her eyes beginning to be all wet again.

Her resolute words only earned her another thwack on the head.

"Who said anything about leaving me here to die?! This isn't some lousy war movie, I want you to get back here with help!" Gascogne said.

Dita very nearly burst into tears then, but whatever discipline Meia had drilled into her kicked in. Fighting to hold her tears back, the red-haired woman nodded.

"O-okay... I'll be back soon. Don't go anywhere, Miss Gasco!" she said. Dita gave a hasty salute, turned around and boosted off towards her Dread using her backpack.

"That's GascoNGE!" Gascogne said and waved a fist at her disappearing form.

As Dita's Dread powered up and left, Gascogne took a deep breath.

'It's not as if I'm going anywhere...'

Her grim thoughts were interrupted as she noticed her surroundings getting brighter. Looking around, she saw a pulse of energy running through the remnants of the ship.

To her concern, some of the four-limbed enemy fighters began to stir. Several quickly peeled off and went after Dita's fighter, while others remained.

"Looks like we have company..." Gascogne muttered. She slowly retrieved her laser sidearm, a puny weapon in the face of such danger. But then again, she could use it on herself...

---

"Yeaaaaaaaaaarrghhhhhhhh!" Bart screamed as the ship hurtled beyond his control. Before he knew it, the entire ship plunged deep into an ice field. And because he had a first-class view, it was as if the young Taraak man was experiencing it first-hand.

Luckily for him, no one on the bridge could hear him.

"We seem to be heading towards a nebula, and we still don't have navigation control!" Amarone repeated.

"First the edge of the galaxy and now a nebula. Why is this trip so interesting?" Magno complained. The heat was getting unbearable now, so much to the extent that she had an icepack on her head.

Parfet's face appeared on her console. "Captain, the engines are behaving weirdly! I'm not sure we can keep it under control in these conditions," the bespectacled girl warned.

Magno nodded in acknowledgment. "I'll tell BC to get one of the men to help you. Do what you can and keep this ship in one piece!"

"We'll do our best!" Parfet said and signed off.

"Can things get any worse?" Magno sighed.

"There's ice in the nebula!"

"Oh, what joy," Magno rolled her eyes.

Down in the cells, Hibiki had another of his weird dreams. Once again, he was floating within a sea of blue plasma, surrounded by a sensation of being watched and of being tested by unknown forces.

He lashed out angrily, swinging his arms and legs in futile punches and kicks. He was like a trapped beast: angry and yet fearful of the unknown. The bluish energies swirled around him madly, confusing his senses.

"What?! What the hell do you want?!" he yelled at the swirling shapes.

When he saw that their movement was slowing a little, Hibiki felt emboldened. "Is that big robot yours? What do you want from me!? I won't be a part of your plans!!"

Hibiki was right in thinking that he would provoke an answer from the mysterious surroundings, but unfortunately for him, the answer he got was a series of energy bolts into his bodies.

Screaming in pain, Hibiki found blackness.

"Hibiki..."

A deep voice echoed from far away.

As Hibiki opened his eyes, he found the surroundings have changed. Instead of the featureless, circulation of blue, he was now seeing his old home. It was a farm some distance away from the major Taraak cities, where he had lived together with his grandfather.

"Hibiki."

Hibiki tried to focus his eyes on the details, but the scenery remained just as irritatingly blurry. He did recognize the voice though, and as the owner approached he could see a familiar shadow.

"Gr-grandpa?" Hibiki asked uncertainly.

"Hibiki... it is time for you to leave this place for the city," the figure said.

"B-but, why...?" Hibiki found himself asking. A small part of him was telling him that this was a memory, not something he was experiencing at the moment, but he paid no heed to the tiny voice.

"You have to find yourself. And to know yourself."

"What? Of course I know who I am..."

"No," the figure said. He tossed something, and Hibiki found himself catching a badge of some sort.

"No, you don't," the shadowy figure continued. "A man's worth is judged by the friends he have. Friends are reflections of yourself. So go out there, and find friends. So you will find yourself."

"Granpa..."

And as quickly the vision appeared, it dissipated.

Suddenly Hibiki was aware of a warm presence near to his face. Opening his eyes, he found himself staring at the peaceful, concentrating face of Duero in extreme close-up.

With a start, the younger man shoved Duero away. "W-what are you doing?!" Hibiki demanded.

Duero leaned back, not offended by the violent manner he was treated. "I was just checking your temperature. I thought you might have a fever," he explained in a logical tone.

"Well it's either that or he likes you," Arion smirked.

"I didn't think you're the type who talk in his sleep," Eadric said, smiling broadly.

"Huh?"

"You were mumbling. Who is Granpa?" Duero asked.

Hibiki sat up in a huff and leaned back against the wall. "He's just Granpa, he took care of me since I was little," he said, trying to be offhanded about it.

"Interesting. A member of the first generation was personally taking care of you..." Duero mused aloud.

"First generation?" Arion repeated.

"They are the first colonists of Taraak. The oldest and wisest of our world. As I have said, we are the third generation," Duero answered.

Once again, BC entered and interrupted the conversation.

"Duero... and you, the system engineer, come with me. That is, if you don't mind," BC said, a tint of sarcasm on her tongue.

"My name is Eadric," the Chinese man frowned as he exited the cage and joined the Taraak man on the outside.

"What about me?" Arion gestured.

"It's not your turn yet," BC said.

"What about food?"

"Later," BC replied curtly as she took the two prisoners away.

"Why do they keep saying that?" Arion muttered.

---

Eadric found himself being led apart from Duero, escorted by a Mejale female wielding a laser rifle who had rendezvoused with the group.

"Take him to Engineering," was BC's simple order.

On the way there, Eadric tried to make small talk but the lone security officer pointedly ignored him, instead urging him to move quickly with a jerk of her weapon.

"Eek! A man!!" was the first greeting Eadric got when the doors to Engineering slid open.

"Why yes, I am," Eadric replied brightly and struck a pose. The girl who had exclaimed in terror blanched at his statement and only retreated further.

Parfet heard the noise and fearlessly (or heedlessly) went up to him.

"You're an engineer?" she asked.

"Among other things," Eadric grinned, trying to see past her spectacles. It was futile, it was as if her glasses were made like one-way mirrors. He only got more concerned when the rest of the people in the Engineering section wore the same sort rounded glasses.

"Ah, whatever. Come over here and help me with this," Parfet said, showing him to a console. There were wires running out from the controls and displays. His eyes followed them and noticed that they were directly connected to a white, egg-shaped droid which groaned in an electronic voice.

"...Sick...." the droid moaned.

"What are you doing to him?" Eadric asked and frowned at the jumble of wires and exposed circuitry.

"Him? It's just a droid," Parfet said.

"From what I see, -he- is sentient. You could be killing him," Eadric said. He had several good friends who were droids back at the Alliance of Free Stars, including members of the wise and infinitely patient, crystalline-mechanical Chmmrriii race.

"Well, you could be right, but I'm not the reason of his condition. He was already like this before we even hooked him up. Anyway, I did a spectral analysis and found that the pexis pragma and this droid are on the same wavelengths," Parfet explained.

"And, you're trying to...?"

"I thought the droid could make a sensor or some sort of a reporting module or extension to the pexis. We got a lot of data, but we can't decipher it," Parfet continued, gesturing to the screen.

A wall of brute data scrolled down the screen in a quick pace. To the Mejale women's eyes, it was in an arcane, alien script, but Eadric recognized bits and pieces of it.

"I think I can help with that," Eadric said. Without being invited, he sat down on the console and his fingers began flying over the keyboard.

---

In another section of the ship BC and Duero entered the medical sickbay.

"You are not taking me to the captain?" Duero asked with no real surprise in his tone.

"We have a patient for you to examine," BC replied.

Duero's head cocked to one side. "Strange. I had assumed that you have sufficient medical technology."

BC grinned without humor. "So you seek information at every possibility. Very well. The ship is currently unstable, and we have lost control of some systems, including the medical systems."

Duero didn't blink. "What are the symptoms of the patient?" he asked, changing the subject.

"A high fever that wouldn't subside. That is all we know for now."

The long-haired Taraak man nodded. "I will treat the patient."

---

"Done," Eadric said, sensing the impatient presence of Parfet behind him.

"Really?" Parfet blinked. She took a glance at the screen. "What do you mean 'done'? I can't understand a thing!" she demanded.

"Sorry, all I could do was organize the data into readable Taraak. Since I don't know Mejale's written language... I can't help you with that," Eadric shrugged.

Parfet stared at him for a moment. "Fine, I guess that will have to do. Can the data tell me what's happening to the ship then?" she asked.

"Yeah, it seems that the, er, pexis pragma is spreading. The entire core is getting larger and hotter."

"We know that! The question is -why-!?" Parfet said.

"I'm not sure, but it says here that there are impurities on the ship's systems," Eadric replied, tapping the screen with a finger.

"So you're telling me that the pexis pragma is going to explode because there are unwanted stuff in the ship? Because of the fusion process?"

"Could be, maybe," Eadric said vaguely. The Exodusian pressed several keys and pulled up a schematic display of the ship. Several interlocking lines ran through the entire length of the ship, from the fore to the aft, with the pexis pragma core as the source. Some were colored red, others black.

"As you can see here, there are some sections where the energy dispersal process are clogged up," he said, gesturing at the red lines.

"I see. The energy from the blocked nodes are being fed back directly to the core, causing an energy feedback," Parfet said, cupping her chin in a thoughtful pose.

"Yeah, so if you want to stop the core from exploding..."

"We have to reroute the energy supply lines!" Parfet concluded excitedly. Without waiting for Eadric's confirmation, the chief engineer of the pirates turned and quickly directed orders to her crew.

"Shut down all auxiliary systems and reroute the jammed energy lines through them! Evacuate and seal off sections 14 through 29, it will get real hot down there!" she yelled, sending her subordinates scurrying into action.

Just as Eadric thought he was forgotten, Parfet whirled around and gave him a thumbs up.

"Hey, thanks for the help!"

Eadric smiled. "Just doing what I can."

---

Back at the sickbay, Duero slowly waved a handheld scanner over Ezra's body. The Mejale woman was breathing heavily, sweat lining her brows.

"Hmm," was Duero's only comment. Despite the equipment in his hand was a piece of Mejale technology, he was able to understand the functions. It was the results of the scans that puzzled him.

BC had left the room, so that the other person there was Paiway.

He was about to link the handheld scanner to the main console of the sickbay when the power went out.

Paiway, who was overseeing him; immediately pulled out a communicator.

"Engineering-" the petite woman started to say when Duero suddenly snatched it from her grasp.

"Engineering, I have a patient in sickbay. I require power immediately," he said, not noticing the disconcerted face of the head nurse behind him. She stared daggers into his back and rubbed her hands.

"Duero, is it?" an unexpected voice answered him.

"Commander Eadric?"

"Yeah, I'm helping at Engineering. Sorry about the blackout, but we're trying to save the entire ship," came the apologetic tone.

"The patient's life may be in danger. I may need to perform surgery."

There was a pause before Eadric replied, presumably to confer with the chief engineer.

"Alright, you got it."

"Thank you, commander."

"It's not me you should thank," Eadric said modestly. "And again, sorry. I should have thought of that."

The Exodusian cut off the comm before Duero could say anything. Duero found his behaviour a refreshing change from the boorish Taraak officers that he had encountered previously.

'A very interesting person,' he thought to himself as he went back to work on Ezra.

---

Back on the bridge, Magno looked like a kid whose ice cream cone had melted off. There was a small electric fan blowing directly to her face, but it was still warm air. The elderly woman was looking at her melted ice pack in woe when BC reported in, her face appearing on the console.

"Captain, Meia has told me that the flight deck is jammed and not operational."

"Wonderful news," Magno said with heavy sarcasm. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the men's section of the ship. It seems that it is relatively free from the crystals," BC answered.

""What are you doing there?"

"Captain, I propose that we allow the Taraak man to use his Vanguard to rescue Dita and Gascogne."

"Not a bad idea," Magno nodded.

"The risk is there, but then the Vanguard could merge with Dita's Dread if the need arises," BC admitted.

"There is no harm of the boy escaping, he doesn't look the sort. Proceed."

"Understood," BC nodded and signed off.

---

"So kid, tell me, what's living in Taraak like?" Arion asked conversationally.

"Will you stop calling me 'kid'? My name is Hibiki!" the Taraak boy in question said.

"Sorry 'kid', but I'm allowed to call everyone else 'kid'," Arion smirked.

"Argh, you're really getting pissing me off!" Hibiki flared. The flush of anger only made him even more uncomfortable, as the entire area was getting warmer. Frustrated with the situation, the Taraak boy took off his shirt. It only further annoyed him when he saw that Arion was sitting cross-legged on the floor, seemingly unaffected.

"How can you be so calm like that!?" Hibiki demanded.

"Don't be stupid, of course it's hot. I'm just trying my best to ignore it. No sense in complaining about something you can't do anything about."

Despite his irritation at the Exodusian, Hibiki was impressed. Sadly though, it only lasted for a few seconds before Arion's stomach growled loudly. The Chinese man groaned before toppling over.

"Huh," Hibiki said in disdain as Arion folded his arms around his midriff.

Once again, BC entered the room.

"Ah, hey-" Arion began.

"Later," BC said, cutting him off and approached Hibiki's cell.

"Goddamnit," the Exodusian snarled to himself.

"What, is it my turn now?" Hibiki said defiantly.

BC placed a hand on her hip and gave Hibiki a slight smile. "Actually, we need something from you," she said.

Hibiki shrank back in fear. "M-my liver!?"

The silver-haired woman's eyes widened in surprised amusement, but kept her tone serious.

"Nothing of that sort. We need your help to get two of our crew back."

"Hah! You want me to help you? You got to be joking, why should I even want to help you?" the boy said impudently.

From his cell, Arion frowned, his hunger momentarily forgotten. He kept quiet, wanting to hear more.

"We don't need to be fighting each other. There is something out there who wants to destroy both men and women. You saw the enemy with your own eyes," BC said.

"Heh," Hibiki sneered.

The ship trembled as something struck its hull, as if to punctuate BC's point. Hibiki's veneer disappeared as he looked up at the bulkhead.

"Since you have defeated them once, I thought you would help us to fight them again. But perhaps I was wrong," BC said, beginning to turn away.

"Wait, let me do it," Arion called out suddenly.

"Can you pilot the Vanguard?" BC asked.

"I didn't know about the Dread either, but I didn't do too bad out there, did I?" Arion countered.

"Hey!" Hibiki started to object.

"Are you sure? This time you're going to rescue two other lives, not just fighting off the enemy."

"Hey, the strong gotta protect the weak," Arion smirked mischievously.

"I'll do it!" Hibiki hollered suddenly, pushed into action by Arion's words. The woman and the Exodusian turned to look at him.

"What?" BC demanded.

"I said I'll do it! It's -my- Vanguard, I can't let anyone else touch it!" Hibiki said righteously.

BC gave Arion a glance, who shrugged and sat back in a surrendering gesture.

"Fine. Come with me," BC said to Hibiki.

"Hey kid!" Arion said.

"What!? And stop calling me 'kid'!" Hibiki said irritably.

"Good luck," Arion grinned and gave him a thumbs up. Hibiki's lips twisted into a grumble, but Arion knew he was suppressing a grin of his own.

The moment BC and Hibiki left, Arion let out his breath. His stomach growled again.

"Ooooh... I don't feel so good..."

---

"Brace for impact," Amarone warned. A few seconds later the entire ship rumbled as a chunk of ice grazed the hull.

"That makes the third hit. Don't we have any navigation controls yet?" Magno demanded. A brand new ice pack was on her head, though her small electric fan had died off.

"No, and we're going dead ahead at high speeds. The system locked us out," Belvedere said.

Magno grunted and pressed a button. "Boy, can you stop the ship?"

Bart's terrified face immediately told her he couldn't.

"It HURTS!!!" the blond man screamed. He rubbed his arm, as if he was bruised.

Magno rubbed her temples in pain.

"Captain, there's a large-sized ice asteroid in our path!" Amarone said in alarm. She punched up the radar onto the large screen. There was a shower of objects heading towards the ship, but to Magno's consternation the large ice asteroid Amarone had warned about was displayed as nearly three times larger than the ship.

Magno turned her attention back to Bart. "Are you getting this? Do something and get us out of here!"

"Get -me- out of -here-!!" Bart yelled in panic.

---

At the debris field, Dita was feeling a similar wave of panic. Gascogne had entrusted her to complete the mission and then to return to rescue her, but Dita couldn't even get herself out of her own predicament.

Her Dread fighter was surrounded by three of the enemy fighters. Normally the girl would have engaged them, but mindful of Gascogne's situation and the limited supply of oxygen in her spacesuit, Dita was loathed to do so.

"Ahhhh bad aliens! Evil aliens!! I hate you! Go away!! Eeek!" Dita complained as her Dread rattled with every blast it took from the three pursuers.

Then her radar rang out shrilly, warning her of another bogey directly in front of her.

"Another bad alien!?" Dita moaned. Just then, another violent blast knocked her forward in her seat. In her panicky response to sit back up, she accidentally triggered the firing mechanism.

A laser bolt flew towards the frontal bogey, narrowly missing the oncoming shape.

"What do you think you're doing?!" a male voice hollered angrily.

"Eh?"

In the cockpit of his Vanguard, Hibiki took several quick breaths to regain his composure before switching on the visual link.

"I come out all this way to help and you repay me with a laser!?" he said.

"Mr. Alien!!" Dita called out happily, relief flooding her face.

Somehow, the look on her face only served to embarrass Hibiki, who tried to put on a macho face. Then he noticed his sensor readouts.

'Why is she increasing her speed?' Hibiki wondered.

"Mr. Alien! You've come to rescue me, didn't you? I knew you're a good alien!"

"No... no, get away! Aaarghhhh!"

The moment Dita's Dread and Hibiki's Vanguard came into contact with each other, there was a burst of blinding light. The Dread slid and twisted open, allowing the yellow Vanguard to slip inside. As the Dread enclosed itself around the mecha, the entire combination shifted and morphed, resulting in a much larger, bipedal mecha.

The enemy pursuers were seemingly blinded by the transformation sequence. It was as if their circuits were overloaded by the energies that fueled the metamorphosis, and the three enemy fighters simply exploded.

Inside the Vandread, Dita squealed with delight as she took in her surroundings. Her previous experience in the mecha was while she was unconscious. Now she reveled in the alien, exotic technology that surrounded her.

"Oh wow, look! Look at that!" Dita pointed at something excitedly, bouncing up and down on Hibiki's lap.

It was causing a not-wholly-uncomfortable sensation, but the last thing Hibiki needed was a distraction caused by a Mejale woman on his lap.

"Hey, quit moving around!"

Dita stopped, twisted around and looked directly at Hibiki's face.

"I want to thank you, Mr. Alien. I believed in you, and deep inside me, I knew you would come," the red-haired woman said, almost formally. Her deep blue eyes and sweet smile only made Hibiki feel warmer.

"Hmph," Hibiki said, trying not to look into her eyes, "you're just lucky I found you. It's not as if I'm out here specially for you."

"Mmmhmm," Dita nodded knowingly and turned away. "But I thank you anyway," she added, still smiling.

Hibiki coughed and didn't jerk his hands away from the two orb-like controls when Dita placed her hands on his.

"Well, er, let's go find your friend," Hibiki said.

"Yes!"

But back at the wreckage, a single enemy fighter was still alive. It had discovered Gascogne's pinned position and instead of blasting her into atoms, it extended a saw-like device and began to cut towards her.

"I could use someone like you on my crew. Hardworking, no complaints and comes with power tools too. Lovely," Gascogne remarked to the enemy fighter.

As the saw edged ever closer, Gascogne began to sweat. One of the tentacles swiveled to look at her, a red eye-like camera device focusing on her distress.

"Looks like it's my turn eh?" the muscled woman said bravely.

Just as the sparks from the cutting friction began to land on her facebowl, a huge metallic hand burst into the scene and wrapped itself on the enemy. Pulling back a distance from Gascogne, the fist then proceeded to squeeze.

The resulting explosion was much smaller than Gascogne had envisioned.

As the massive Vandread drifted into her field of vision, Gascogne breathed in a sigh of relief.

"A late, late show, but at least it's a good ending," she smirked.

---

"Well, we've done all we can do," Parfet announced. She turned to look at the screen. Eadric said nothing, there really wasn't anything else to do. The pexis-pragma was still overheating despite their last-ditch efforts to reroute the excess energies.

Pyoro the droid was still lying on its side, still moaning in pain.

Still, Eadric wasn't pessimistic.

"I guess all there's left now is to believe," he smiled.

Parfet blinked at his recklessly optimistic statement, but nodded in acknowledgment.

At the bridge, Magno tried to control her own rising fears as the radar showed the asteroid getting closer and closer.

"Distance is 12,000 and closing," Amarone reported, every fiber of her being tensing up.

Magno gritted her teeth, eyes hard on the radar screen.

It was only when a blast of air swept her face that she noticed her electric fan was starting back up.

That coincided with the revival of the ship's systems across the board.

"The system just rebooted!" Belvedere exclaimed. Outside, the ship began to eject various materials, as if dumping excess weight. Crystals and bits of rusty armor and whatnot stripped away from the ship, revealing a brand new, sleek form.

However, the asteroid was still bearing ominously down on it.

Down at engineering, Parfet high-fived Eadric as her crew whooped as the diagnostics showed stability increasing throughout the ship, not really knowing of the icy danger the ship was facing.

Not even Pyoro, who jumped up and down in hyperactive fashion, feeling fully revived.

"Get us out of here! Hard to starboard, 30 degrees!" Magno ordered directly at Bart.

"Starboard? Left!? Right!? It's too late, we can't make it, aaaaaaaaaahhh!" Bart shrieked in terror from the navigation pool.

"Energy surge from the asteroid!" Amarone reported.

And then the huge mass of ice split open right in the middle. The momentum caused them to spin away harmlessly from the ship, their edges barely a few yards off the hull.

"W-what? What was that?" Bart said, leaning forward. His forward screen zoomed in obligingly.

He saw the Vandread of Dita and Hibiki, its huge shoulder cannons just sliding back into position after being fired. It didn't take much thinking for Bart to realized that the Vandread had been responsible for the ice-breaking.

"So he saves the day again. Hmph, I bet he will get all the credit again," Bart muttered, his earlier distress completely forgotten.

---

And so the day is saved. Eager to get away from the cramped confines of the Vandread's cockpit, Gascogne hurried away and reported her findings to BC and Magno.

Just as mysteriously the Vandread combined, it separated back into its two component parts. A visibly tired and gaunt Hibiki was barely aware of his situation as Dita cheerily grabbed him and babbled his exploits to anyone that was present.

Eadric was talking to Parfet about his thoughts regarding the similarities between the pexis-pragma and the reflex engine when the ship's general intercom rang.

"The captain and I have concluded our meeting and we have decided to inform all of you of our findings," BC's voice said clearly.

In sickbay, Duero and Paiway looked up from their care of the wounded and weary.

"After analyzing the data we recovered from the enemy ship, we finally have some information regarding our new enemy. Take a look at this picture of their homeworld," BC continued.

Throughout the ship on all available screens, a blurry freeze-frame picture was displayed. It was a planet encased by a glassy material and filled with huge gears, interlocking and rotating like a massive clockwork device.

"Strange planet," Parfet commented. Beside her, Pyoro gestured in agreement, even saying "Uh-huh".

They didn't notice the sharp intake of breath from Eadric, who stared at the picture.

"We are currently within their territory, and because of their attacks we believe we are being thought of as a threat to them. All we can do is fight back, and we believe we will have to do it often. There is a reason why we are not going to negotiate with them," BC paused, allowing time for her listeners to digest.

Down at the hangar, Dita stopped her tale, and she and her listeners turned towards the nearest speaker.

"From our data, we learned that this enemy is planning an all out destruction of our homeworld Mejale, as well as the men's world of Taraak. It is for this reason of complete destruction that we must fight," BC said.

Down in the crew quarters, Jura and Barnette stirred groggily and caught the tail end of the announcement.

"Did something happen today?" Jura moaned and held her head.

Magno's voice then took over the announcement. "We are pirates, and as pirates we have no obligations whatsoever towards Mejale or Taraak. However, we have to protect our interests, and having the homeworlds of our 'customers' blown up would be bad for business," Magno said, grim humor in her tone.

"And so, I have decided that we have to return and warn both Mejale and Taraak regarding this problem. And because we need to return before our new enemy arrives at our home system, we must allow the men to work together with us in this matter," the captain continued, ignoring the surprised looks on Amarone and Belvedere on the bridge.

"See? I knew you have to depend on us," Bart grinned tiredly as he was ejected out from the navigation pool.

In her room, Meia wasn't very happy. She frowned but continued to listen.

"Still, there are a lot of things that we don't understand yet. This very ship for one, and the enemy's strange homeworld too. But as we progress in our journey, we will learn more. We will succeed, and I expect each and everyone of you to cooperate. That is all!" Magno said and nodded satisfactorily to herself, ending the communication.

Just as she did so, the doors to the bridge slid open. A much healthier-looking Ezra entered, accompanied by Duero.

Ezra bowed apologetically to her captain. "I'm sorry for my absence earlier. I'll be returning to duty now."

Magno nodded.

"So, have you found out the cause of your sudden fever?" BC asked. Ezra smiled embarrassedly and blushed.

Noting her hesitation, Duero answered for her. "It seems that is a parasitic organism growing within her. It is deriving its nutrients from her body."

"Ah!?" Magno demanded in concern, nearly standing up from her captain's seat.

"No! That's not it!" Ezra said, her face reddening even more.

"I am in error?" Duero asked.

"I... well, I'm having a baby," Ezra said bashfully.

"What?!" Belvedere and Amarone chimed. They quickly left their stations to interrogate Ezra.

"When did this happen? When did you become a fahma?"

"And who's the ohma?"

"A baby? But I thought babies are made in factories," Bart said.

Belvedere and Amarone gave him looks of distaste.

"I see, so the rumors are true. Women are capable of reproducing internally," Duero said in a scientific manner.

"Captain... I'm really sorry. I wanted to tell you right after the raid..." Ezra said.

"Silly girl, there's nothing to apologize about," Magno said and favored her with a warm smile.

"So who is the ohma, tell us!" Belvedere insisted.

"What is this... 'ohma'?" Duero asked.

Impatient to hear Ezra's answer, Belvedere quickly explained. "The ohma donates an egg and the fahma takes care of it in her womb..."

During the commotion, BC subtly retrieves a disk from one of the consoles unseen.

"...and that is how babies are born. Don't you men know -anything-?" Belvedere concluded.

"I have never heard of such a thing."

"This is too much excitement in one day, don't you think so, BC?" Magno asked. BC straightened up and quickly hid the disk at the back of her clothes.

"Yes captain, you're right," she said.

Unaware of her second-in-command's subterfuge, Magno leaned back on her seat and linked her fingers. "Looks like we just got another reason to do this," the captain said, her eyes taking a distant look.

---

As the ship's engines flared and sped away from the nebula, embarking on its first leg towards home, there was a lone figure down in the cells.

Sad, lonely and hungry, Arion Wong clutched his cramping stomach in pain.

"Somebody help..."

Finally done with this chapter. Sorry for the delay, barely survived a move, pc breakdown and a sudden influx of ideas for -other- fics.

i "Phenomenal cosmic power... in itty bitty little space" – guess which movie this Disney quote is from

ii Zentraedi – reference to Robotech's race of 60-70 foot tall warrior giants. The Sentinel Crusade is a reference to an UPA story involving the various facets of Robotech (will never be published, 'coz it's written in circa 1995-1996 by a bunch of overeager and naïve writers ; ).

iiiAlliance of Free Stars & Chmmr – Reference to Star Control


End file.
